SE 






l-s? 1 



OF 




I: 



ROYAL! 



PRINCESS 
CATHERINE HADZi 



^ 'W 



SECRETS 
OF DETHRONED ROYALTY 




Fhotogial'h, "International," N. Y. 
Ex-Emi'iou<)« Kaki, oi 



y\llSTUIA, AND I'AMll.Y, IN lOxll.l'. 



SECRETS 

OF 

DETHRONED ROYALTY 



BY 

PRINCESS CATHERINE RADZIWILL 

(count pai;l vassili) 

AfJTHOli OF 

"the dwilltjimonh or a cboww pbikcesb," 

"■XHfUXm AWD THK BUIMIIAN BEVOLCTIOK," 
"BEBIMD the VEIl. AT THJE BrjHHlAN COOBI," 

nc. 



ILLUSTRATED 



NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY 

LONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD 
MCMXX 



CoPYllUillT, Wii), 

By John ].anio Company 



m 1 I 1920 



Pross of 

J. J. Littlo &• Iv.s Company 

Now York, U.S.A. 



U 4 I ?j 

'IT 23 



©C!.A570304 



FOREWORD 

The talented i\jnerican woman writer, Rheta 
Childe Dorr, in her amusing book on Russia, relates 
a conversation which took place between her and 
the intimate friend of the unfortunate Czarina 
Alexandra, Anna Wyrubowa. The former asked 
what a Court was like, and the question drew forth 
the characteristic reply that the only word to 
describe it was "rotten." The expression was cer- 
tainly not elegant and the person who uttered it 
was perhaps the last one who ought to have done so, 
considering that she, more than anyone else, was 
responsible for the corruption of the one Court at 
which she had been received, and which she had 
ruled, in fact if not in name, for many years. But 
the expression was, in a certain sense, justified, be- 
cause there is no doubt that the haunts and abodes 
of royalty in Europe were the centres of so many 
intrigues that the only wonder is they existed as 
long as they did. Royalty, in the three great coun- 
tries where it is now abolished, certainly did not 
set any good example to the world. All, or 



vi Foreword 

nearly all, the scions of these royal honses, brought 
up as they were in the conviction that, thanks to 
their high position, eveiything was allowable for 
them, so abused their i^rivileges that when the wave 
of revolution which overturned the Romanoffs, 
Ilapsburgs and Hohenzollerns swept over Eu- 
rope, hardly one soul could be found to defend 
them, or even to take their part and try to shield 
them from the indignation of the mobs clamouring 
for their downfall. Most of these princes and 
princesses had had a story, and in the majority of 
cases it was not one calculated to do them honour 
or to raise them in the opinion of their contem[)o- 
raries. 

Royal love affairs and, if the truth be told, royal 
financial affairs could fill a volume of greater bulk 
than I intend to write ; but I think it may amuse the 
public to read certain little stories connected with 
Russian, Austrian and German royal personages 
and Court life, w^hich up to now have been known 
only to a small and select number of people. They 
may open the eyes of those who have heard nothing 
about the ctmditions under which these exalted per- 
sonages spent their lives, and do away with the halo 
which surrounded them — no one knows why. They 



Foreword vii 

may also serve to ameliorate the pangs of future 
American travellers through Europe at missing the 
opportunity of being presented to the rulers of 
these different countries. All these kings and 
queens, emperors and empresses, whose favours 
were sought with such eagerness, and whose smiles 
made so many human creatures happy, have had 
their day — and a very good day it was for them 
while it lasted. Now the story is at an end and the 
curtain has fallen on the comedies and tragedies 
which gave rise to so much gossip and caused so 
many heartburnings in the select society circles of 
two continents. Let me give you a peep behind the 
scenes before the drama has quite faded from my 
memory and recall for you certain anecdotes and 
events — both amusing and serious — which appeared 
so supremely important to all who were connected, 
either directly or indirectly, with them. This may 
procure for my readers a few pleasant hours, and 
more than that I do not aspire or pretend to do in 
this present volume. 



CONTENTS 
PART I 

IIUHKIA 

ruAPTKR v\(:i-, 

1. TuK Russian Impeuial Famii.v in Olden Times 15 

II. Relatives of Nicholas II 27 

III. The Vladimir Family 40 

IV. The Youthful Adventures of Some Grand 

Dukes 54 

V. Some Russian Morganatic Marriages . . 01- 

VI. The Empress Alexandra and Her Sister . 75 

VII. Love Affairs OF THK Grand Duke Michael . 85 

PART II 

AUSTRIA 

I. The liOVK Afiairs of Francis Joseph . 101 

II. The Idiosyncrasies of the Hapsburgs . Ill 

III. Imperial Morganatic Marriages 121 

IV. The ('rown Princess Stephanie and Her 

Daughter VMi 

V. The Story of the Archduchess Elizabeth 147 

VI. The Story of the Princess Zita . . 101 

VII. Two Royal Madwomen 171 



10 Contents 

TART III 

GERMANY 
CHAPTER PAGE 

I. An Old Family Scandal of the Hohenzol- 

LKRNS 183 

II, The Berlin Court Under William I . .191 

III. A Sister-in-law of the Kaiser .... 200 

IV. The Grand Ducal Family of Weimar . .211 

V. The Story of Two Little Mecklenberg 

Princesses 221 

VI. The Kaiser's Romance 230 

VII. The Princess Charlotte of Meiningen and 

Her Adventures 241 



ILLUSTRATIONS 
PART I— RUSSIA 

Ex-Emperor Karl of Austria, and Family, in 

Exile Frontispiece 

FACINO 
PAOE 

Emperor Nicholas I and Emperor Alexander II . 16 
Grand Duke Constantine Nicolaiewitch and 

Grand Duke Michael Nicolaiewitch ... 28 
Emperor Alexander III and Empress Marie 

Feodorowna 42 

The Late Czar Nicholas II of Russia .... 56 
Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrowitch .... 60 
Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlowitch, the Son of 

Grand Duke Paul, Uncle of the Late Czar 

OF Russia 70 

The Late Czarina Alexandria of Russia ... 76 

Grand Duke Sergius and his Wife, Grand Duchess 

Elizabeth 82 

Grand Duke Michael 86 

Grand Duchess Olga of Russia, Sister of the 

Former Czar 92 

PART II— AUSTRIA 

Francis Joseph 102 

Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his Wife, the 

Countess Sophy Chotek 112 



12 Illustrations 



FACINkJ 
PAOB 

Archduke Frederick 122 

Princess Stephanie of Belgium 136 

Ex-Emperor Charles Francis Joseph and Ex- 
Empress ZiTA OF Austria 162 

PART III— GERMANY 

Emperor William I of Germany, Signing an 

Official Document on His Deathbed . 192 

Grand Duchess Theodora of Saxe-Weimar, Wife 

OF Germany's Wealthiest Reigning Prince . 212 

The Kaiserin in 1881 and the Kaiser in 1883 . 230 

Empress Frederick with her Daughter, Princess 

Charlotte of Meiningen 242 



PARTI 
RUSSIA 



THE RUSSIAN IMPERTAT. FAMILY IN 
OLDKN TIMES 

The Court of Russia has always been famous for 
its imiDorality. Yet this reputation was only 
justified in so far as it eoncerned the Imperial fam- 
ily and the small number of people elosely eon- 
nected with it. Russian soeiety itself was very 
moral in its views, manners and customs. The 
levity which existed in the fashionable circles of 
other countries was unknown in that of St. Peters- 
burg, where ar> unspoken !)ut very real indignation 
existed at the sayings and doings of those who oc- 
cupied high places. At the same time it must be 
confessed that, as a general rule, the Grand Dukes 
and Grand Duchesses of Russia were anything but 
moderate in their tastes and fancies, though they 
never exhibited their peculiarities in public and 
abroad in olden times with the same unconcern as 
during the reign of Nicholas II when anarchy 
showed itself in the bosom of his family long before 
15 



i6 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

it grasped the rest of his subjects. In former days 
the Czar was feared by his kindred more, perhaps, 
than by anyone else: no member of the Rom- 
anoff family would have dared to remain any length 
of time abroad without the express permission of 
the head of his house, and it behooved him to give 
the busy-bodies of St. Petersburg no opportunities 
of criticising his conduct, in so far as his public 
sayings and doings were concerned. His private 
life, no matter how irregular it may have been, was 
kept secret, and he would no more have tried to do 
what the younger generation of his race openly did 
during the last five and twenty years or so which 
preceded the Russian Revolution, than he would 
have attempted to fly. Sovereigns and Grand 
Dukes had their love affairs, but did not make them 
public property, and it was only during the reign of 
Alexander II that any scandal arose to shatter 
the Imperial prestige both at home and abroad. 

His father, Nicholas I, had had a lady friend in 
the person of a maid-of-honour of his wife, the 
Empress Alexandra Feodorowna, but this friend- 
ship had been conducted in an extremely quiet and 
subdued manner, and though everyone in the capital 
knew about it, no one could have accused Mademoi- 



Russian Imperial Family in Olden Times 17 

selle Nelidoff (this was the lady's name) of putting 
herself forward in any way. She did not go out 
into society, and no one, with the exception of a 
small circle of intimate friends, ever saw her except 
on official occasions when etiquette required of her 
to be in attendance on the Empress. The latter 
had a warm sympathy for this rival who, on her 
side, showed herself invariably submissive and re- 
spectful towards her Imperial mistress. The 
Emperor used to visit her in the apartments she 
occupied in the Winter Palace every afternoon 
when he was in town, and invariably consulted her 
on all important matters, and she often gave him 
very sound advice. She was a remarkably clever 
woman, extremely well read and well educated. 
But she had none of the ambitions of a Madame de 
Pompadour or de ^laintenon, and after the death 
of the Emperor she withdrew into private life. Her 
death took place some forty odd years after that of 
Nicholas. She had really loved him, and he had 
truly loved her, but this had not prevented him 
from showing himself always an affectionate hus- 
band, and treating his wife with the utmost respect 
and the tenderest of care. The immorality of the 
situation was quite overlooked because of the 



1 8 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

dignified manner in which the affair was conducted. 
Alexander II was a very different man from 
his father. He had no delicacy of feeling, and he 
made no secret of the numerous liaisons and 
intrigues in which his life was spent. He married 
for love a Hessian princess who was considered un- 
marriageable on account of certain irregularities 
connected with her birth, which had been such a sur- 
prise to her father that he never wished to see her 
and had had her brought up away from him, in a 
solitary castle in Thuringia, where the then Czare- 
witsch had accidentally met her. He forthwith fell 
in love with her and insisted upon making her his 
wife, thus transforming her into so important a per- 
sonage that the Grand Duke of Hesse was com- 
pelled to seek, in his turn, her favour and good 
' graces. She was a very pretty woman, with lovely 
expressive eyes; and she was possessed of extreme 
dignity, which carried her through many an un- 
pleasant and sad time, when her husband, having 
wearied of her, openly exhibited his admiration of 
other women. Alexander II was a great flirt, and 
might easily have rivalled Louis XIV by the 
multiplicity of his love affairs. When quite a young 
man he had entertained a real and sincere affection 



Russian Imperial Family in Olden Times 19 

for one of his mother's ladies-in-waiting, Mademoi- 
selle Sophie Dachkoif, but had found himself con- 
fronted by high principles and a stout determina- 
tion on her part to have nothing to do with him. 
The Grand Duke, as he was at the time, had tried 
his best to induce her to respond to his feelings in 
regard to her, but all his efforts had been in vain, 
and he had been forced to turn his attentions to- 
wards another quarter. 

A Polish lady, Mademoiselle Kalinowska, en- 
dowed with remarkable beauty and all the pro- 
pensity for intrigue which is one of the character- 
istics of the nation to which she belonged, was the 
next person to attract Alexander II. There he 
did not meet with the resistance which he had en- 
countered in the case of Mademoiselle Dachkoff, 
but found his feelings fully reciprocated. The girl 
(she was nothing else at the time) was ultimately 
married, thanks to his help, to a Polish magnate, 
Prince Oginski, and endowed beyond the dreams of 
avarice by her Imperial admirer. She lived to a 
very old age, and became quite an important per- 
sonage in St. Petersburg society, leaving, when she 
died, a fortune valued at several millions of roubles 
to the two sons she had borne to Prince Oginski. 



20 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

Her career had been an entirely successful one. 

After Mademoiselle Kalinowska's marriage the 
Kniperor found himself again free to dispose of his 
affections, but for a long time the Imperial hand- 
kerchief was not thrown to anyone but remained in 
the pocket of its owner. Then one day St. Peters- 
burg began to talk about its Sovereign, and when 
St. Petersburg talked it was as in the times of the 
Borgias when people used to say that the Pope had 
sent out invitations to supper. 

The next romance of Alexander II was not quite 
what might have been expected even of so amorous 
a gentleman as he had always shown himself to be. 
It had this peculiarity: the heroine of it. Princess 
Mary Dolgorouky, was quite a young girl, almost 
a child, who, having been left at her father's death 
to the care of the Kmperor, had been ])laced by him, 
with her sister Catherine, in the Institute of 
Smolna, where the daughters of poor scions of the 
nobility were educated. Alexander was accustomed 
to visit this Institute, knew all the pupils, and often 
petted and caressed those who specially appealed 
to him. The little Mary, even as a mere baby, was 
his i)articular favourite; she continued to be so 
when she grew up, until at last Alexander removed 



Russian Imperial Family in Olden Times 21 

her from the hospitable roof which had sheltered 
her and established her in a magnificent house on 
the English Quay, where he soon adopted the habit 
of visiting her daily. 

Of course, St. Petersburg was indignant — and 
was not wrong in showing itself scandalized by pro- 
ceedings which were so unusual, to say the least. 
But it was to be more scandalized as time went on, 
for very soon it was whispered that the young 
Princess was about to be married to a dashing 
young officer, Count Berg, and that her younger 
sister, Catherine, had taken her place in the af- 
fections of the Emperor. To all the old Dowagers 
(whose word was law in the Russian capital) this 
was "a hard nut to crack," and they raised their 
hands to heaven in mute protest at such doings. 

Of course, they all said that they did not believe 
it, but for once gossip did neither lie nor exagger- 
ate. Mary Dolgorouky married Count Berg and 
went to live in Paris and Nice, and her sister 
Catherine settled in her place in the house on the 
Quay, where nothing was changed except its 
mistress. 

The Emperor seemed to become reckless. He 
carried his infatuation for the Princess Catherine 



22 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

to such an extent that he insisted on her accompany- 
ing him whenever he travelled abroad, and once, 
when he passed through Berlin on his way to Ems, 
made her stay with him at the Russian Embassy, 
to the horror of the old Kaiser and, still more, the 
Empress Augusta of German5^ who immediately 
took to her bed, so that she should not have to re- 
ceive her nephew the Czar, whom she hoped in this 
way to impress with her indignation. And later 
on, when nihilist attempts to miu'der him had made 
it difficult for Alexander II to M^alk freelj^ and 
unattended in the streets of St. Petersburg as he 
had been in the habit of doing, he brought Catherine 
Dolgorouky to the Winter Palace, and lodged her 
in rooms which were situated immediately above 
those occupied by the Empress, who could hear all 
day long, above her head, the patter of little feet — 
the feet of her rival's children. 

Six weeks after his wife had breathed her last 
the Emperor married Catherine Dolgorouky in the 
private chapel of the Imperial Palace of Tzarskoie 
Selo, to the indignation of the entire Court and even 
of his best and most intimate friends, one of whom. 
Count Adlerberg, who occupied the important posi- 
tion of JMinister of the Imperial Household, had 



Russian Imperial Family in Olden Times 23 

implored Alexander on his knees not to contract 
such a union. The Emperor, however, felt that it 
was his duty to make "an honest woman" of the 
lady who, he firmly believed, had sacrificed so much 
for him, and to legitimate the three children she had 
given him. She had so entirely fascinated him that 
he could refuse her nothing, and it is certain that 
but for the bomb which ended his life he would 
have had his new wife solemnly crowned in Moscow, 
and thus have made her an Empress. She ruled 
him with an iron hand, and at last he dared not 
move a step without her permission. She was a 
stupid woman, but she was very ably advised, and 
she contrived, moreover, to make for herself friends 
among some of the most intelligent men in Russia, 
who, eager for reform and a change of govern- 
ment, hoped to succeed in bringing about what they 
desired through the support and co-operation of 
the Emperor's young wife. 

Alexander's children had looked with anything 
but favour on their father's love affair with the 
Princess Youriewsk}^ — such was the name be- 
stowed by the enamoured Czar on his morganatic 
consort on the day he married her. The heir to 
the throne and the Grand Duchess Cesarewna 



24 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

particularly felt very (lee|)ly the insult to their 
mother's memory vvhicli this hasty marriage im- 
plied. In consequence of this the relations between 
the Winter Palace and the Anitchkoff, where the 
Eni])er()r's eldest son and family were living, be- 
came very strained, 'i'he Princess Youriewsky, 
who felt deeply the ostracism to which she was sub- 
jected by the entire Imperial family, tried to avenge 
lierself by repeating to her husband all kinds of 
tales concerning his children, and these stories were 
all of a nature calculated to arouse his anger against 
them. The last incident, which preceded by a few 
days the murder of iVlexander, caused a great deal 
of talk in St. Petersburg and was the means of a 
cruel humiliation to the then Grand Duchess Marie 
Feodorowna, now the Dowager Empress of what 
was once Russia. She and the Grand Duke had 
gone on an ex[)edition to a restaurant in the islands 
surrounding the capital to hear one of the 15o- 
hemian choruses which at that time was so famous, 
A few of their personal friends accompanied them ; 
among others one who in after years was to become 
Alexander IJ's most trusted and devoted adviser. 
The Grand Duchess returned home in a sleigh with 
him, her husband following in another sleigh with 



Russian Imperial Family in Olden Times 25 

the Countess Worontzoff. They never supposed 
that the Emperor would hear of this expedition, })ut 
hear of it he did, through the Princess Youriewsky, 
who made it her particular husiness to keep herself 
well informed as to all that her enemies (so she 
considered them) were doing. The Emperor was 
quite furious at what he considered an unpardon- 
able breach of etiquette. He sent for his daughter- 
in-law and treated her to such a scene that she re- 
turned to her own home in tears, while her escort, 
who had also called down upon his head the 
Sovereign's wrath, made up his mind that the best 
thing for him to do was to send in his resignation 
of the post he held of Assistant Minister of the 
Interior. 

The day following this incident was a Sunday — 
March 13th. As usual, Mass was celebrated in the 
chapel of the Winter Palace, and all the Imperial 
family were present. When the service was over 
the Grand Duchess Cesarna approached the Em- 
peror to take leave of him. He seized her by the 
shoulders and, pushing her towards the Princess 
Youriewsky, said roughly: "Dilcs done adieu a la 
Prineess" "Say good-bye to the Princess." The 
heiress to the Throne made a deep curtsey, which 



26 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

might have been intended for either the Sovereign 
or his wife, and then silently withdrew. But later, 
during a tete-a-tete luncheon, she and her husband 
discussed the situation, and almost made up their 
minds to ask the Czar to allow them to go and spend 
a few months abroad, during which time matters 
might adjust themselves and a more pleasant con- 
dition of affairs gi'eet them on their return. 

While they were talldng the sound of an ex- 
plosion startled them. A few moments later they 
saw an officer, bareheaded, drive posthaste through 
the Anitschkoff Palace gates, and they heard that 
the bomb thrown had put an end to their perplex- 
ities. A few hours later the Czar was dead, Alex- 
ander III was reigning, and Marie Feodorowna 
found herself Empress of all the Russias. 



II 

RELATIVES OF NICHOLAS II 

AxEXANDER II had three brothers who all made 
themselves notorious, though in different ways. 
The eldest, Grand Duke Constantine, was con- 
sidered the clever man of the family, and with good 
cause. He was a liberal (if such a term can be 
used in regard to a Romanoff) and it was to his in- 
fluence over the Czar that the greatest act of the 
latter's reign — the emancipation of the serfs — ^was 
attributed. Afterwards he was sent as Viceroy to 
Poland, but in that capacity did not prove a suc- 
cess. Perhaps no one could have achieved any- 
thing like a success in Warsaw, where the position 
was attended with so many difficulties that the most 
tactful person in the world could hardly have hoped 
to succeed in pleasing the Polish and Russian politi- 
cal parties. But perhaps matters might not have 
failed so uterly if someone less occupied in trying 
to please the fair sex had been sent- to rule over the 
compatriots of Kosciuszko. The Grand Duke 
27 



28 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

flirted with the Polish ladies until one of them was 
foolish enough to think that he could be induced to 
divorce his wife in order to marry her. When she 
had to give up the idea the disappointment aroused 
her jealousy and vindictiveness, so she induced one 
of her relatives to aim his revolver at the Grand 
Duke one afternoon when he was driving with the 
Grand Duchess in the park of Lazienki near War- 
saw. The result of this shot was disastrous, be- 
cause it brought about the recall of Constantine 
Nicolaiewitsch from Poland and the adoption of 
repressive measures in regard to the Poles which 
culminated in the insurrection of 1863. 

When the Grand Duke returned to St. Peters- 
burg he was made very much of by the Emperor, 
who did not wish the public to think that he dis- 
approved of anything his brother had done, and 
he resumed the happy-go-lucky existence which he 
preferred to any other. He was too clever not to 
care to surround himself with clever people, but at 
the same time he could not check the propensity for 
intrigue which was his most prominent trait. Soon 
people began to discuss his friendship for a lady 
belonging to the highest social circles who had re- 
cently been divorced. And gossip became even 




CIkani) Dukk 
('onhtantinio 

Nl('()l,AIi:\VIT(.' 

(MO 



Gbam) Dukic 

MlCIIAKI, 

Nicof.AirovviTcii 
(Uiyhi) 



JJUUTIIKlfS OF Al.KXA.NDKU 




Relatives of Nicholas II 29 

busier when it transpired that the lady in question 
was established in a lovely villa in the Crimea close 
to the Grand Duke's palace, where he spent the 
greater part of the year. This villa was surrounded 
by beautiful gardens in which her pretty children 
(none of whom bore the slightest resemblance to 
her divorced husband) used to play to their hearts' 
content. 

Constantine Nicolaiewitsch remained for years 
— indeed, until his brother's assassination — the head 
of the Russian Navy, and during the long period 
of his administration the expenses of the fleet were 
stupendous, though there was nothing to show for 
this tremendous expenditure. But the Grand 
Duke's income seemed to increase every day, and 
he seemed as lavish with his money for personal re- 
quirements as for the welfare of his beloved navy. 
Of course, people talked, but in Russia at that time 
no one minded what the public said and the Great 
Admiral's actions were never questioned until the 
day when his nephew, Alexanderfll, ascended the 
throne. The latter had never liked his uncle and 
he hastened to put an end to his activities. The 
Grand Duke was told that the best thing he could 
do was to resign, which he hastened to do, retiring 



30 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

this time definitely to the Crimea, never to return 
to St. Petersburg until he came in his coffin. And 
simultaneously with his departure the expenses con- 
nected with the fleet diminished in a remarkable 
manner, while it was discovered that new ships 
could be built with a facility no one had supposed 
possible. 

Among the numerous children of Constantine 
Nicolaiewitsch, the eldest. Grand Duke Nicholas, 
achieved rather tragic notoriety through his intrigue 
with a famous demi-mondaine, Fanny Lear, who 
found herself suddenly (no one knows by what 
means) in possession of the diamonds of the Grand 
Duchess Alexandra, the mother of her admirer; as 
a consequence of which she had to leave St. Peters- 
burg in a hurry, and the Grand Duke himself was 
sent to Taschkent, where he remained, if not exactly 
confined, at least under strict orders never to leave 
his place of banishment. His name was mentioned 
no more in the St. Petersburg drawing-rooms, 
where he had been a great favourite before this 
catastrophe, and people, including his family, tried 
to forget him, more especially when he married a 
person to whom they naturally objected — the 
daughter of a policeman. It seems, however, that 



Relatives of Nicholas II 31 

she made him very happy and that he never had 
occasion to regret having chosen her to enhven his 
exile. 

Grand Duke Nicholas Constantinowitsch died 
during the war, before the downfall of his dynasty. 
He had of his own free will renounced the title 
of Grand Duke, and signed his letters Nicholas Ro- 
manoff, declaring, to all who wished to hear, that 
he was a Republican by sympathy and a Soeiahst 
by profession. 

The young e st brother of Alexander II, the 
Grand Duke Nicholas, father of the Grand Duke 
of that same name who commanded the Russian 
armies in the beginning of the war, was also a 
prominent personage in St. Petersburg society 
during his brother's reign. He, too, was fond of 
spending money, but in his case it was his own 
which he squandered right and left, until he became 
seriously financially embarrassed towards the end 
of his life. He was a very handsome man, but in- 
expressibly stupid, though he considered himself 
clever. An amusing anecdote is related of him. 
One afternoon he was presiding at one of the 
numerous committee meetings of which he was 
chairman. It was a business meeting connected 



32 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

with the financial affairs of the army, and the Grand 
Duke had made some remarks not at all to the point 
which at last exasperated an old general who 
noticed that Nicholas Nicolaiewitsch was working 
his fingers under the table-cloth in the manner of 
a school-boy when confronted by some aritlimetical 
problem. Unable to control his irritation, the Gen- 
eral interrupted the Grand Duke with the biTital 
remark: "When a person can only count on his 
fingers, he would do better to hold his tongue." 

The only practical member of that generation of 
the Romanoff family was the Grand Duke Michael, 
who, perhaps because he was married to a very 
clever woman, contrived to add considerably to his 
already large fortune, and to remain u])on excellent 
terms with his brother, as well as with his nephew 
and great-nephew when they ascended the throne. 
He was much respected by Alexander III and 
slightly feared by Nicholas II, during whose reign 
he was not often seen in St. Petersburg, preferring 
to spend the greater part of the year in Cannes. 
He did not at all approve of the young Empress 
Alexandra, nor of her doings, but he forbore from 
saying anything about her, being of the opinion 
that "discretion is the better part of valour." His 



Relatives of Nicholas II 33 

was an easy-going, placid temperament, and he was 
far too much of an epicure to allow himself to be 
seriously disturbed by anything which did not con- 
cern his personal and immediate comfort. Even his 
son's escapades left him more or less indifferent. 

He was for many years Viceroy of the Caucasus, 
and it was principally during his sojourn in that 
country that his fortune increased to the enormous 
amount it ultimately reached. He bought large 
estates, the value of which augmented fabulously, 
and which certain Caucasian chiefs were very glad 
to sell him because they knew that it would be im- 
possible for them to retain their possession once 
they had attracted his attention. And he showed 
himself a prudent administrator of the land over 
which he ruled, and contrived to make himself 
popular with its population, so that when he retired 
he was generallj'^ regretted. 

I have said that his wife, the Grand Duchess 
Olga, was a very clever woman. I may also add 
that she was also very charming and could, when 
she liked, make herself pleasant and amiable. She 
was ambitious and a perfect type of a Grande Dame 
of the old Regime, dignified and proud, and though 
condescending, never disagreeably so. She had 



34 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

read a good deal and absorbed what she had read 
and she brought up her numerous children with 
extreme care. But she ruled her household with a 
rod of iron and her will was never disputed, either 
by her husband or children. She married her daugh- 
ter, much against her will, to a German Prince, 
who never made her more happy than upon the 
day that he departed for a better world. The 
Grand Duchess Olga was such an autocrat in her 
family that she died from anger and disappoint- 
ment when her second son clandestinely married 
the present Countess Torby. Young Grand Duke 
Michael had been for a long time in love with the 
Countess Catherine Ignatieff, the daughter of the 
famous General and diplomat who for so many 
years represented Russia in Constantinople. He 
had promised to marry her, no matter what op- 
position he should encounter, and had he only per- 
severed in his good intention it is probable that 
Alexander III would have relented and allowed 
the marriage. In fact, the reason the Czar objected 
to this union was that the Grand Duchess Olga had 
declared she would never sanction it, and had 
begged her nephew to uphold her in this matter. 
It was she who had sent her son abroad, hoping 



Relatives of Nicholas II 35 

that travel would cause him to forget the lady to 
whom he had solemnly plighted his troth. He did 
forget her, but perhaps not in the way his mother 
had expected, for it was the sight of another pretty 
face that made him forsake the Countess Ignatieff. 
The blue eyes of the Countess Meremberg, the mor- 
ganatic daughter of Duke Nicholas of Nassau, 
worked the change, and he became her husband 
without asking leave either of his parents or the 
Czar. 

Grand Duchess Olga was stunned. Her grief 
was so poignant that the doctor, fearing her health 
would suffer seriously, ordered her to the Crimea, 
hoping that the mild climate would restore her 
nerves. She was quite ill and depressed when she 
set out and became so much worse during the 
journey that she had to stay over in Kieff, where 
she died, in the Imperial waiting-rooms in the rail- 
way station, whence there had been no time to re- 
move her, so suddenly had the end come. 

The Countess Ignatieff behaved with immense^ 
dignity. She returned to the Grand Duke the ring 
he had given her, also his letters, and retired from 
the world completely, entering subsequently the 
community of the Holy Trinity, a religious order 



36 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

devoted to the nursing of the sick. She was a real 
heroine during the Manchurian campaign, and the 
Japanese treated her as one, after seeing her at 
work. When the great war broke out she again 
vohinteered her services, but her health was so un- 
dermined by the privations she had had to under- 
go that she fell a victim to pneumonia in Warsaw, 
while on her way with a Red Cross detachment to 
the front. I have been told that when they dressed 
her body after her death they found in a gold locket 
attached to a chain which she wore round her neck 
a miniature of the Grand Duke Michael, the only 
remembrance of the one great love of her life — a 
love that had wrecked it. 

The object of this infatuation did not seem to 
trouble about the girl whom he had forsaken so 
cruelly without one word of explanation, and he 
took life most easily during all the years which 
followed upon this episode of his early youth. He 
made his home in Cannes in France, and in Eng- 
land, where he became at once popular, as did his 
wife, who received from the Grand Duke of I^uxem- 
burg the title of Countess Torby. They were a 
hospitable couple and had plenty of money to 
spend, and they always showed themselves ad- 



Relatives of Nicholas II 37 

mirable hosts. The Countess was the man of the 
family — and a clever one she was. She became a 
social power and everyone pitied her when the Rus- 
sian Revolution deprived her and her husband of 
their income and obliged them to retrench — the 
most uncomfortable of all uncomfortable situations ! 
But they married their two daughters extremely 
well, especially the eldest, Countess Zina Torby, 
who became the wife of the heir of the millions of 
Julius Wernher of South African fame. If the 
Czar had reigned, such a marriage would have been 
considered a mesalliance; after his fall it became a 
matrimonial Derby for its lucky winner. 

The brothers of the Grand Duke Michael were 
not so fortunate as he. Three of them, among them 
the most intelligent of the whole Romanoff family, 
Grand Duke Nicholas Michaylowitsch, were mur- 
dered by the Bolsheviks under particularly atro- 
cious circumstances, whilst the fourth. Grand Duke 
Alexander, contrived to get into the black books 
of the Allies, in spite of the fact that he is married 
to the Grand Duchess Xenia, the eldest daughter 
of the Dowager Empress Marie of Russia and sis- 
ter of the late Nicholas II. He succeeded in escap- 
ing from the Crimea before his wife and children 



38 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

were able to do so, and proceeded to Paris, where 
it seems that the indifference he exhibited regarding 
the fate of his unfortunate brother-in-law and his 
family produced a bad impression on all. He had 
never been popular, except, perhaps, at Newport, 
when he paid a visit there before the war, where his 
handsome face and charming manners won him 
much admiration. In St. Petersburg his propen- 
sity for intrigue made him always more or less 
dreaded. People wondered how his wife contrived 
to get on so well with him, and stories of his con- 
tinual escapades seemed innumerable. One of them 
amused the gossips of the Russian capital for 
months. It seems that he had allowed himself to 
become entangled in an intrigue with the wife of 
a small "tchinownik" or clerk in the Foreign Office, 
from whom he had liidden his identity. He used 
to visit her sometimes in the afternoon in her own 
apartment and one day was surprised there by her 
husband who retin'ned home unexpectedly; enquir- 
ing the name of the unknown visitor he was told 
that he was the piano tuner. After this, one of 
the Grand Duke's friends who had heard the story 
sent him as a Christmas present a miniature piano 
to wear as a pendant on his watch chain. He had 



Relatives of Nicholas II 39 

had it made by Faberge, the Court jeweller, who, 
of course, produced a wonderful ornament which 
was universally admired, though few people guessed 
its significance. 



Ill 

THE WLADIMIR FAMILY 

There is a Russian proverb to the effect that 
every family has its black sheep. As regards the 
Romanoffs this could be amplified, inasmuch as 
they possessed a whole flock of black sheep. 
Amongst them the Grand Duke Wladimir, elder 
brother of Alexander III, his wife and their three 
sons, hold a prominent place, because they were the 
heroes of more scandals than anyone can possibly 
remember. 

To begin with the Grand Duke: his drunken- 
ness, brutality and coarseness made him hated 
everywhere in Russia, though abroad he made for 
himself many friends, more perhaps on account 
of the high position he occupied than for any other 
reason. He was a clever man — that much must be 
conceded him — he was a wonderful reader, and a 
connoisseur in all that concerned artistic matters. 
In Paris he was extremely liked, and Paris was 
the place where he showed himself to the best ad- 
40 



The Wladimir Family 41 

vantage, probably because he could lead there the 
easy kind of existence that suited him. In St. 
Petersburg he tried to play the autocrat and this 
made him many enemies. It was believed at one 
time that he had considerable influence over his 
brother the Czar, but this was not so, as Alex- 
ander III always dreaded the Grand Duke's am- 
bition and, moreover, suspected him always of be- 
ing entirely under the sway of Germany and the 
Kaiser. 

The Grand Duchess Wladimir, by birth a Meck- 
lemburg Princess, was considered the head of the 
German party at Court, and had always been an- 
tagonistic to the Empress Marie Feodorowna, in 
spite of the invariable kindness with which the lat- 
ter had treated her ever since her marriage. Marie 
Powlowna (such was the name of the Grand 
Duchess) is one of the persons who has had the most 
disastrous influence over Russian society. She 
demoralized it to an extent no one could have an- 
ticipated when she arrived in St. Petersburg a 
blushing bride, neither pretty nor elegant, looking 
like nothing but a dowdy little German girl. A 
few years of marriage and a few visits to Paris 
changed all that and transformed her into an ele- 



42 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

gant and handsome woman, wlio dressed to perfec- 
tion and was in every way most attractive. Though 
of a haughty disposition, she, nevertheless, was ex- 
tremely gracious towards those who appreciated 
her charms, which of course made her much talked 
about and caused scandal to be extremely busy with 
her name. This happened especially on the numer- 
ous occasions when some friends whom she had 
made abroad came to St. Petersbiu'g and were re- 
ceived by her and the Grand Duke as guests in their 
palace. Among them figured a prominent clubman 
of Paris, Mr. Kidgway, of American origin, who, 
it was said, was the character described by Paul 
Bourget in his novels under the name of Raymond 
Casal. ITc spent a winter in Russia, shooting with 
the Grand Duke and playing bridge with the Grand 
Duchess, who liked to sit up very late at night. He 
always s})cnt his evenings w^ith her when not other- 
wise engaged. 

Of course this furnished talk for the busybodies, 
and it was whispered that the Czar did not approve 
of his sister-in-law's favourites, but, if such was the 
case, he kept his disapproval to himself, and it was 
on\v on two occasions that he made the Grand 
Duchess feel that he was displeased with her. 



The Wladimir r'amily 43 

The first occasion wus a few months after the 
murder of Alexander 1 1. Marie Fawlowna aspired 
at tfiat tirrn* to l>lay a political role and to hecorne 
the uniting- link hetvveen her ruitive (lerinany and 
the (;ountry in whicli slie lived. Slie used to write 
lon^ letters to Prince Hismarck, who was the all- 
important })ersona^e in Herlin at the time, and in 
these letters she descrihed everything that was go- 
ing on at Court, in a way that was anything hut 
charitahle. One day she accidentally left one of 
these letters on her writing tahle, where it was dis- 
covered hy one of her hush/irid's ;i,ide-d(;-eamps, 
Count Paul SchouwaloH' (known to all his friends 
})y the nickname of no!)hy), who forthwith cjirried 
it to the Kmpei'or. A terrihle scene ensued. Alex- 
ander 111 sent for his hrothcr and gave him to un- 
derstand that his wife must give u[) her political 
activities Jind that they had hoth hetter go al)road 
for a few months. This comm.'irid they hastened to 
ohey and ref)aired to th(; soutli of I*' ranee wlicre 
they remained for a long time, going th(;nce to 
Paris, where the Duchess ordered a numher of new 
dresses to wear during the forthcoming coronation, 
which — disgrace or no disgrace — sh(; was hoimd to 
attend. 



44 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

As for Count Scliouwaloff, he had, of course, to 
leave the Grand Duke's service, but this did not 
trouble him much, for the Czar appointed him one 
of his personal attendants, which was more than 
he had ever hoped for. In society some people 
blamed him for having shown himself so ungentle- 
manly as to read a letter not intended for him, but 
others declared that he had only done his duty in 
warning his Sovereign of the conspiracy which was 
being hatched against him in his own family. The 
Grand Duchess Marie Pawlowna never would 
speak to him after this incident, and maintained, 
until after the Revolution, an attitude of enmity 
towards the Coimtess Schouwaloff, even after the 
Count died. This Mecklemburg Princess was not 
of a forgiving nature. 

The other scandal, by which she incurred the 
wrath of the Czar, was not of a political nature at 
all. The Grand Duke Wladimir, his wife and a 
small number of their most intimate friends re- 
paired one evening for supper after the opera to a 
fashionable restaurant of the capital. Of course 
they should not have gone there, as such a thing was 
not supposed to be done by Imperial Princesses — 
in fact, was hardly permissible to the male members 



The Wladimir Family 45 

of the family. But they hoped that, for once, no 
one would be the wiser, and, excited perhaps by the 
novelty of the thing, they sat down to enjoy one 
of those wonderful meals which can be found no- 
where so perfect as in St. Petersburg. Whilst they 
were eating and drinking the champagne, without 
which no entertainment could take place in the Rus- 
sia of that time, they heard singing and laugh- 
ing in the room adjoining their apartment. Marie 
Pawlowna asked the waiter who the occupants were 
and was told that it was the actor, Lucien Guitry, 
one of the favourites of the select public that used 
to attend, every Saturday, the performance of the 
French play in the Michel Theatre, and some of 
his friends, among others Mademoiselle Angele, an 
actress with whom he was supposed to be on most 
intimate terms. Marie Pawlowna suggested that 
the Grand Duke should ask this merry company to 
join their own. This was done, and a scene of wild 
disorder was the result. Wladimir Alexandro- 
witsch, who had drunk too many glasses of wine, 
seized Mademoiselle Angele by the waist and kissed 
her, which so enraged Guitry that he in turn caught 
hold of the Grand Duchess, whom he proceeded to 
embrace. She screamed, and her husband, enraged 



46 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

by the audacity of the actor, seized him by the 
throat. Finally the servants, attracted by the noise, 
called the police, and all the actors in this disgrace- 
ful brawl were taken home in a condition best left 
to the imagination of the reader. 

The next morning Alexander III was apprised 
of what had taken place. People who saw him con- 
stantly stated afterwards that his rage was so ter- 
rible that for three days no one — not even the Em- 
press — dared to speak to him. At last he issued 
])ercmptory orders that Guitry be sent out of Rus- 
sia by the next train and that it be intimated to his 
brother and sister-in-law that they had better fol- 
low as quickly as possible. They were not even al- 
lowed to come and take leave of the Sovereign or 
of the Czarina, and they were given to understand 
that if they did not hasten to put the frontier be- 
tween tliem and the wrath of the Czar, they might 
be asked to repair to some place not quite so 
pleasant as Paris or the South of France. 

This was the last of the social crimes of the Grand 
Duchess Marie Pawlowna. When she returned to 
St. Petersburg she was much quieter and tales of 
her extravagance and indifference to the opinion of 
Mrs. Grundy were not so numerous as formerly. 



The Wladimir Family 47 

She assumed the attitude of the clever woman 
desirous of having a salon of her own, patterned 
after those of Madame Geoffrain or Madame du 
Deffand in Paris in the eighteenth century. She 
failed dismally, however, in the attempt, though she 
contrived to collect around her a most amusing 
circle of people who repeated to her every bit of 
gossip current in the town, and who were not looked 
upon with affection or indulgence by the numerous 
dowagers who at that time reigned supreme in the 
Russian capital. 

Marie Pawlowna was very eclectic in her tastes 
and friendships and, provided people had money 
and were ill-natured, she did not require anything 
more of them. Soon she had a set of her own 
which called itself the "smart set," but which was 
by no means the best in St. Petersburg. After 
the accession of Nicholas II, owing to the aversion 
for society of the Empress Alexandra, and the re- 
tirement from it of the Dowager Empress, the 
Grand Duchess Wladimir became a social power 
and, as such, helped more than anyone to bring 
about the laxity in morals which prevailed in the 
Russian capital during the last few years that pre- 
ceded the great war. She was the first member of 



48 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

the linperiiil family to iiuoibcr amongst her friends 
divorced people, and for this innovation she was bit- 
terly reproached by the few remaining persons who 
had been born and bred under the old Regime. No 
member of the real old Russian aristocracy fre- 
(juented the Grand Duchess Marie Pawlowna's 
salon, but one met there a number of nouveaux 
riches, or people who had never before succeeded in 
breaking down the very effective barriers which up 
to that time had protected the exclusive circle from 
those who hovered on the outer edge. Among those 
who composed her intimate set were to be found 
ladies like the Princess Cantacuzene, whose father, 
Mr. Sicard, had been a French hair-dresser of 
Odessa; ^ladame Serebriakoff, whose great wealth 
was derived from relatives who had been more 
prominent in the timber market than anywhere 
else; Mr. Benckendorff, whose career had been so 
adventurous that he had had to bid good-bye to the 
diplomatic service rather more quickly than he cared 
to do, and other men and women, who, though very 
pleasant, amiable and even clever, were not de- 
scended from people whose names were inscribed in 
the golden book of Russian aristocracy, and there- 
fore, according to the old code of etiquette that had 



The Wladimir Family 49 

ruled the Winter Palace, not worthy to be friends 
and companions of the Imperial family. 

I must here explain that Russia — the old Russia 
which we are accustomed to associate with the Czars 
— was the most democratic country in the world. 
Peter the Great had divided the nation into twelve 
classes, comprising? all the civil and military au- 
thorities and functionaries. Every Russian was 
supposed to serve the State, and after having done 
so faithfully for a number of years to rise in the 
hierarchy until he had obtained a rank which would 
entitle him to be presented to his Sovereign and re- 
ceive invitations to the festivities of the Court. 
Birth was of no avail; therefore, it happened that 
on certain occasions — such as the annual ball in 
the Nicholas Hall of the Winter Palace, to which 
more than eight thousand people were invited — one 
would meet persons utterly unknown, whilst some 
of the bearers of the most illustrious names in Rus- 
sia, such as a Prince Gagarine or a Count Schere- 
metieff, were conspicuous by their absence, as they 
were not of sufficiently high rank to be admitted to 
the monarch's presence on this particular occasion. 

It should here be explained that usually the sons 
of people who by birth belonged to the high social 



50 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

classes of the Empire were given Court appoint- 
ments, which, of course, opened for them and their 
wives and daughters the golden gates of the 
Palace. Also, all the former maids of honour of 
the Empress, even if they married a man not 
eligible for the honour, conferred it upon him by 
reason of their former position. This rule com- 
pensated for the hardships of the regulations which 
no Czar had possessed sufficient courage to change, 
since they had been established by the great Peter; 
but they still gave rise to some ludicrous incidents 
connected with the appearance at Court of per- 
sons who had neither the manners nor the education 
to entitle them to this advantage. 

I remember one episode which proves the truth 
of my assertion that some of the gTiests at the Win- 
ter Palace did not even know the Sovereign and 
his family by sight and failed to recognise them 
by their pictures. One January evening I was 
present at this great annual ball of which I have 
just spoken. The crowd was immense and the 
faces I knew few and far between. I was being 
escorted to supper by one of my cousins. Count 
Toll. In front of us was a very stout old lady, el- 
bowing her way through the crowd that blocked the 



The Wladimir Family Si 

passage to the supper-room. She was dragging 
with her an aged admiral of the fleet, a perfect 
stranger to us. Suddenly she exclaimed: "Wait 
a moment ; I am going to get hold of the epaulettes 
of this little Colonel in front of us and he will pull 
us along with him." And she forthwith proceeded 
to do so, giving her victim a vigorous pull. My 
cousin touched my arm and we hoth with difficulty 
suppressed a smile. The "little Colonel" was the 
Grand Duke Cesarewitsch, Nicholas Alexandro- 
witsch, who, with his partner, the young Countess 
Worontzoff, was also trying to fight his way 
through the crowd that thronged the big rooms 
and halls of the Palace. 

This ball and the annual levees that took place 
on New Year's Day and at Easter were the only 
occasions when the whole of administrative and 
military Russia was admitted to pay homage to its 
Sovereign. The other balls (during the reign of 
Alexander III two a week were given) which took 
place at Court, were most exclusive as regards the 
people invited to them. Those held in the Concert 
Hall, as it was called, were absolutely fairy-like, 
and I do not think a more magnificent sight could 
be witnessed than that of the supper-room as it ap- 



52 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

peared on these occasions. In the centre of every 
table was a huge palm tree, and the rest of the 
table was entirely covered with the rarest flowers, 
whilst under the large portrait of the Emperor, 
Nicholas I, was a veritable garden of roses and 
other exquisite plants. No one who was present 
at any of these entertainments can ever forget 
them, and it seems incredible that all this pomp, 
this luxury, this magnificence, is at an end forever- 
more. 

The Ambassadors were present at all these balls, 
but the diplomatic corps was invited only occasion- 
ally. Before the dancing began the ladies who had 
not previously attended these functions were pre- 
sented to the Empress and she always had a pleas- 
ant word to say to them. Also, the newly-ap- 
pointed diplomats and strangers of distinction 
were introduced to the Emperor by their respective 
Chiefs of Mission. 

I remember an amusing incident which occurred 
on one of these occasions : an American millionaire, 
from the Far West, more renowned for his wealth 
than for his education and manners (for the con- 
venience of the story I shall call him Mr. Carr), 
had contrived that he and his wife should be in- 



The Wladimir Family 53 

vited to the ball. The United States Minister, 
Mr. Andrew White (there was no Ambassador at 
that time), presented him to the Emperor. Alex- 
ander III, always pleasant to foreigners, entered 
into conversation with him. Mrs. Carr, who was 
viewing the proceedings from the distance, felt that 
she ought to be included, and forthwith hastened 
to her husband and began pulling him by the arm, 
to the horror of the American Minister who did not 
know how to restrain her. Mr. Carr, however, un- 
derstood at once what was tlie matter and with a 
sweep of the hand indicated the Sovereign to his 
smiling and panting wife. "Mrs. Carr," he 
solemnly said, "this is the Czar." Alexander rose 
to the occasion — his sense of humour never de- 
serted him — and shook hands with the gratified 
lady, remarking as he did so: "And the Czar is very 
pleased to meet you, Mrs. Carr." 



IV 

THE YOUTHFUL ADVENTURES OF 
SOME GRAND DUKES 

The younger generation of the Romanoffs, who 
had not been brought up in the ancient traditions 
of their house, but who were very conscious of the 
privileges which their position conferred upon 
them, ahnost as soon as they were out of school 
gave material for much talk to the gossips of St. 
Petersburg, whom they kept plentifully supplied 
with all manner of more or less scandalous stories 
concerning their various sayings and doings. 

For a few years the sons of the Orand Duke 
Wladimir occupied, almost exclusively, the atten- 
tion of the public, especially the Grand Duke Boris, 
who seemed to have been born for the express pur- 
pose of getting into scrapes — and disreputable ones 
at that. He was a handsome fellow, but absolutely 
unscrupulous, and soon became the terror of jeal- 
ous husbands as well as of watchful mothers, who 
were always anxious when he invited one of their 

54 



Adventures of Some Grand Dukes 55 

daughters to dance. Thanks to him, the engage- 
ment of a young girl very prominent in society, 
Mademoiselle Demidoff, was broken off almost on 
the eve of her wedding day. Fortunately for her, 
this did not permanently destroy her happiness, 
because she ultimately married Prince Abaraelek 
Lazareff, one of the richest men in Russia, and 
lived very happily with him. But this did not pre- 
vent people from discussing in most disapproving 
terms the conduct of the Grand Duke. 

He did not mind, however, what the world 
thought of him and his doings, and the next thing 
heard of him was that he was courting a married 
lady. This new romance died a natural death, but 
not before it had occasioned much heart-burning 
and given rise to considerable comment, owing to 
the fact that it very nearly got its hero and heroine 
into very serious trouble. What happened was as 
follows : The Grand Duke used to meet the lady in 
question in the apartment of one of his friends. 
The janitor grew suspicious of these two persons 
who used to steal into the house, with their faces 
buried in their furs, and he thought it his duty to 
notify the pohce of these mysterious visits, with the 
result that one day a detective appeared upon the 



56 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

scene and insisted upon being admitted to the 
apartment. The Grand Duke did not care to dis- 
close his identity to this underhng, so he telephoned 
to the Prefect of the town, General von Wahl. The 
latter was a terrible busy-body and most inquisitive. 
lie bett)ok himself to the liouse where, in the mean- 
while, l?oris Whidimirowitsch and his companion 
remained prisoners, the police refusing them per- 
mission to leave, and he insisted upon learning the 
lady's name, which the Grand Duke was obliged, 
at last, to reveal. Von Wahl was not discreet by 
any means, and a few days later the whole of St. 
Petersburg became aware of the adventure. 

Speaking of this personage reminds me that he 
more than once came into collision with members 
of the Imperial family — even with the heir to the 
Throne, afterwards the unfortunate Nicholas II. 
The latter was supping one night at Cubat, a 
fashionable restaurant of the capital, with some 
ladies, amongst whom figured the famous Polish 
dancer. Mademoiselle Krzesinska, who was his 
mistress for many years, and a few officers of his 
regiment, the Hussars of the Guard. They were 
a very merry party, and when the time came for 
closing the establislmient they refused to go. 




International Film Service 

TiiK Latk Czak Nk'hof.a.s If. OF Russia 



Adventures of Some Grand Dukes 57 

Regulations were veiy strict in the capital as re- 
gards the hour of closing the restaurants, and a 
police officer tried to force an entry into the room 
where the party was disporting itself merrily. 
When he was refused admittance he telephoned 
for instructions to the Prefect, who appeared again 
in person on the scene. The heir to the throne, 
seeing him enter, became enraged at what he con- 
sidered unwarranted impertinence, and in his 
anger threw at the head of the unfortunate von 
Wahl the contents of a large jar of caviar which 
happened to be standing on the table. 

I have just mentioned Mademoiselle Krzesinska. 
It is impossible to relate the secret history of the 
Russian Court during the last twenty-five years 
or so which preceded the downfall of the Romanoff 
dynasty without speaking of her and her extraordi- 
nary influence. She was a very clever, insinuating 
and intriguing woman, a real Pole, not only by 
birth but also in sympathy, with all the grace and 
charm for which Polish ladies have always been 
famous. She was not pretty by any means, but 
she had glorious eyes, and all her movements were 
so graceful that it was a delight to watch her. She 
was a dancer by profession and one of the best that 



58 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

the INlarinsky Theatre had ever produeed. Men 
simply raved over lier and Niehohis 11 was as niueh 
in love ^^ilh lier as it was possible for one of his 
shallow nature to be. Though his relations with 
her had eoine to an end when he married the Prin- 
cess Aliee of Ilesse, he often visited her, and some- 
times even consulted her on political matters, when 
she always advised him wisely. She had given him 
two sons who were very richly dowered. She al- 
ways looked well after her o>\ n interests, and did 
it in so clever and unassuming a manner that she 
won for herself a reputation of complete disinter- 
estedness, which did not ])revent her from buying 
and furnishing a house that was a veritable palace, 
and from accumulating a considcral)lc balance at 
her bank. All the young CJrand Dukes used to 
visit her, and at least two of them, the Grand Duke 
Sergins INTichaylowitsch and the Grand Duke An- 
drew liichayltiwitsch, became her ardent admirers. 
The former was supposed to have helped her con- 
siderably in luM" investments, whilst the latter did 
even better- he married her, immediately after the 
devolution which drove his cousin from the throne; 
after which they both disappeared somewhere in 
Finland, where it is to be hoped that they have con- 



Adventures of Some Grand Dukes 59 

trived to find a shelter from the fury of the Bol- 
sheviks. 

It was in the house of Mademoiselle Krzesinska 
that Bolshevism held its headcjuarters during the 
Kerensky regime, and it was there that Lenin^ 
estahlished himself hefore he took up his quarters 
in the Winter Palace. All the costly furniture ac- 
cumulated hy the fair dancer, together with the 
wonderful works of art which the beautiful dwell- 
ing contained, was destroyed by the Red Guards 
whilst they occupied the Palace, but she herself 
contrived to escape their fury and to find a place 
of safety for her marvellous collection of diamonds 
and pearls, as well as a considerable part of her 
large fortune which, being a wise woman, she had 
invested abroad while it was still possible to do so. 
She is reported to have once said to someone who 
wondered at the persistence witli which she used to 
dispatch funds to London and Paris: "Russia is a 
country in which people will not find it pleasant to 
live some day, and I am preparing against that 
day." 

Mademoiselle Krzesinska had always very 
cleverly screened her actions from the public. She 
was wiser and more tactful than other actresses 



6o Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

who, before her time, had attracted the attention 
of members of the Imperial family and acquired a 
fatal notoriety on that account. Such was Made- 
moiselle Balleta, a star of the stage of the French 
Theatre and an intimate friend of the late Grand 
Duke Alexis, the brother of Czar Alexander III. 
She was accused of having exerted her influence 
over him to such an extent that he was suspected 
of having spent on her funds belonging to the 
navy, of which he was the commander-in-chief. It 
is of course difficult to know whether or not this 
was true, but the rumour became so general dur- 
ing the Japanese war that one evening the audience 
of the Michel Theatre hissed Mademoiselle Balleta 
when she appeared u])on the stage and kept shout- 
ing at her words which were anything but diplo- 
matic, until she fell into violent hysterics and was 
obliged to retire. The next day she left Russia, 
breaking her engagement, which, in any case, this 
scandal would probably have terminated and the 
Grand Duke followed her to Paris, where he lived 
henceforth and where he died in her arms several 
years later. With his death the glories of Made- 
moiselle Balleta came to an end, and she was com- 
pelled to sell the contents of the gorgeous house 




Orani) Duke 
Alkxis 

Ar.KXANDHOWITCII 

(liight) 



<;i{.\M) 1)1 IKK 

V'l.ADIMIU 

Al.KXAMlUOWnc 

(MO 




Rrothious of Ai.kxanokk III. 



Adventures of Some Grand Dukes 6i 

Alexis had furnished for her, and where he used 
to make himself so entirely at home that he often 
forgot to return to his own domicile ! 

The Romanoffs, in spite of all their eccentric- 
ities, were very faithful in their affections, though 
they certainly never were faithful husbands, with 
the one exception of the Czar Alexander III, 
whose family was a model one and who never 
looked kindly or indulgently on the various 
intrigues in which his brothers, cousins and 
nephews found so much pleasure. During his life- 
time a certain amount of decorum was observed 
by his young relatives, but after he passed away 
the last atom of respect for the moralities disap- 
peared from among the Imperial family, who at 
last disgraced the dynasty so utterly that when the 
hour struck for its fall not one single person could 
be found to try to avert the catastrophe or help 
the victims of it. 

The only two respectable Grand Dukes among 
those of the younger generation were Cyril, the 
eldest son of the Grand Duchess Marie Pawlowna, 
and the brother of the Emperor, the Grand Duke 
Michael. They both contracted marriages which 
drew upon their heads the wrath of the Czar, 



(y2. Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

though for different reasons, and they both be- 
haved very well under the ostracism which they 
had to endure for a considerable time. But 
the Grand Duke Cyril, unfortunately, did not un- 
derstand all at once the real import of the Revolu- 
tion, and with a hastiness for which he has since 
repented more than once, no doubt, he led his regi- 
ment to the Duma and placed it and himself at 
the disposal of the new government. This gave 
rise, later on, to all kinds of rumours associating 
him with an attempt to dethrone his cousin, so as to 
put himself in his place, and this discredited him 
both with the liberal and with the conservative 
parties. 

Cyril Wladimirowitsch's wife was an English 
Princess, his own cousin, the daughter of the late 
Duke of Edinburgh and of the Grand Duchess 
Marie Alexandrowna of Russia. She had been 
married to the Grand Duke of Hesse, the brother 
of the Czarina Alexandra, and had been divorced 
from him, which had placed her in the bad books 
of the Empress. For some years the young couple 
lived abroad, and after the Grand Duke was par- 
doned and returned to Russia with his wife, rela- 
tions never became cordial between them and the 



Adventures of Some Grand Dukes 63 

Sovereigns; this perhaps explains the promptitude 
with which they accepted the new order of things. 
The fact was nevertheless discussed everywhere 
and did not produce a good impression. But then 
Cyril was the next heir to the Throne after the 
Grand Duke Michael Alexandrowitsch, and as 
such was likely to be accused unjustly of ambitious 
schemes. He is supposed to be also in Finland at 
present, and in such dire financial straits that the 
Grand Duchess has been obliged to dispose of some 
of her most valuable jewels in order to provide 
them with the means of existence. 

I have been told that when she decided to take 
this step the wife of one of the Bolshevist leaders, 
happening to hear of her intention, dispatched a 
messenger to her with an offer to buy the orna- 
ments and even to give an enormous price for them, 
provided the Grand Duchess would consent to 
write her a letter asking her to do so, which she 
could afterwards show to her friends. Needless to 
say, Victoria declined the offer; but the story has 
its place in history as showing that even a Bolshe- 
vist can show himself (or herself) a snob. 



SOME RUSSIAN MORGANATIC MAR- 
RIAGES 

In olden times no one in Russia would have ad' 
mitted the possibility of any member of the Im- 
perial family making what was called a morganatic 
marriage. Indeed, the idea prevalent in the coun- 
tiy was that once a Romanoff had married any 
woman in the world, no matter who she was, the 
fact that he had considered her worthy of the 
honour was sufficient to secure for her the rank, 
status and title of an Imperial Grand Duchess. In 
olden times the Muscovite Czars had wedded the 
daughters of their subjects, and no one had thought 
that in so doing they were performing an extraordi- 
nary action. The first example of a foreign Prin- 
cess marrying a Grand Duke was when the son of 
Peter the Great took for his consort the Princess 
Charlotte of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, but the 
grandson of the great reformer, Peter II, was 
64 



Some Russian Morganatic Marriages 65 

betrothed to a Princess Dolgorouky when death 
snatched him away. It was solely for reasons of 
policy that Catherine the Great insisted on her 
heir wedding a German Princess, and it was Paul 
who promulgated family laws forbidding any mem- 
ber of the Romanoff family to ally himself or her- 
self with anyone not of royal birth. His sons, 
Alexander I and Nicholas I, were very strict in 
this matter, probably because their German wives 
had imbued them with all the prejudices prevalent 
in German courts, where it was considered im- 
possible for a member of any reigning dynasty to 
seek a wife elsewhere than among the daughters of 
the highest nobility. 

The first example in the Romanoff family of a 
morganatic marriage was that of the Grand Duke 
Constantine, brother of Alexander I, to a Polish 
lady, Mademoiselle Jeanne Gruzinska, after his 
divorce from the Coburg Princess, with whom he 
had quarrelled perpetually, until they both came 
to the conclusion that the best thing they could do 
was to part. Mademoiselle Gruzinska was an ex- 
tremely clever woman, who made herself respected 
not only by her husband, but by all his family, in- 
cluding the stern Emperor Nicholas I, who always 



66 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

showed her the greatest deference and conferred 
upon her the title of Princess Lowitsch. Perhaps 
one of the reasons for his partiahty for this mor- 
ganatic sister-in-law lay in the fact that it was her 
marriage that had paved for him the road to the 
succession to the Russian Throne, Constantine hav- 
ing renounced his rights to it after his wedding, an 
action incomprehensible at first to the nation, and 
one of the reasons for the famous insurrection 
called the Decembrist conspiracy. 

An amusing incident is related in connection 
with this revolt. The leaders of it called upon the 
population of St. Petersburg to rally around them 
and, as they })araded the streets, shouted: "Long 
live the Constitution." The poor moujiks, who 
had never heard the word and had no idea of its 
meaning, rej)eated it, whispering to each other as 
they did so: "Constitution, Constitution, what is 
it? It must be the name of tlie Grand Duke Con- 
stantine's wife." 

Though the marriage of the Princess Powitsch 
was thoroughly successful, a long time passed be- 
fore another member of the Romanoff family fol- 
lowed the example of the Grand Duke Constantine 
by seeking a wife outside royal circles. The first 



Some Russian Morganatic Marriages 67 

one to break away from tradition was the Grand 
Duke Alexis, the third son of Czar Alexander II, 
who fell in love with one of his mother's ladies-in- 
waiting and married her secretly. When the fact 
became known it caused an immense sensation, not 
to say scandal, and the Emperor, in particular, was 
so furious that he forthwith declared the marriage 
null and void, and had the heroine of it sent out of 
Russia by the first train. The unfortunate girl re- 
tired to Dresden, where she led for some years a 
miserable existence, shunned by everybody and 
abandoned by the Grand Duke, who did not 
possess sufficient courage and moral backbone to 
take her part and to stick to her in defiance of his 
father's will. She gave birth to a son who was 
taken away from her by the Grand Duke and 
brought up in Russia, receiving ultimately the title 
of Count Belewsky. Finally she was induced to 
marry a German, Herr von Woermann, with 
whom, I believe, she lived quite happily. She died 
a few years before the Grand Duke, to whom she 
professed herself attached to the last, notwith- 
standing the abominable way in which he had 
treated her. 

After Alexis, it was the Grand Duke Paul, his 



68 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

brother, wlio brought to the Riissiiin Court as his 
bride the daugliter of a simple Russian gentleman 
of ratlicr inferior birth. This marriage crowned 
an aflVction that had lasted a good many years and 
had at last been accepted by the whole of St. 
Petersburg society, where the object of it, IVIadame 
I'istolkors, had always been popular on account 
of her beauty and the excellence of the dinners she 
was fond of giving. She was extremely clever and 
had all along played for high stakes, having had 
from the lirst the lirm intention of becoming the 
consort of Paul Alexandrowltsch. The latter was 
a widower, and su])})osed to be devoted to his sister- 
in-law, the Grand Duchess Elizabeth, wife of his 
brother, the Grand Duke Sergius. This had not 
prevented him from worshipping at the shrine of 
ISfadame Pistolkors, and this worship had been car- 
ried so far that no one doubted but that in time he 
would marry her, provided her husband agreed to 
grant her the divorce she desired. This, however, 
he did not seem inclined to do imtil circumstances 
forced his hand, wliich ill-natured people said had 
been skilfully brought about by the lady herself. 
The way of it was as follows: 
At one of the balls at the Winter Palace, ]Ma- 



Some Russian Morganatic Marriages 69 

dame Pistolkors sui'prised the giiests by wearing 
some diamond ornaments which had belonged to 
the late Empress Marie Alexandrowna, and had 
been bequeathed by her to her youngest son. Paul 
had been induced to give them to Madame Pis- 
tolkors, who had not hesitated to wear them in the 
least desirable place she could have chosen. They 
were at once recognised by the Dowager Czarina, 
who, in her indignation, went to seek her daughter- 
in-law, the young Empress Alexandra, and asked 
her to exert her authority to have the object of this 
unprecedented scandal expelled from the Palace. 
This was done, a chamberlain being given the dis- 
agreeable task of asking Madame Pistolkors to 
leave the ball. The next day the whole town was 
ringing with the story of her discomfiture, and 
her husband found himself in the predicament of 
choosing between divorcing her or sending in his 
papers and leaving the army, his brother officers 
having given him to understand that they would 
insist on his doing either one or the other. 

The lady, upon whom society turned its back, 
after this public slight, fled abroad, where she was 
quickly followed by the Grand Duke, who con- 
sidered himself obliged to stand by her in her mis- 



70 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

fortune. He had never thought of marrying her, 
but now he felt that he could not do otherwise; so 
as soon as she was free he wedded her in Livourne 
in Italy and took her to Paris, where they settled, 
making it their permanent home, for Paul Alex- 
androwitsch was notified by the Czar that his pres- 
ence was no longer required in St. Petersburg, and 
was deprived of his militar^'^ rank in consequence 
of his marriage. 

In Paris the couple made themselves popular, 
and the yoimg wife of the Grand Duke who had 
at his instance been created a Countess in her own 
right by the King of Bavaria, enjoyed to the 
utmost the gay Parisian life. She was really a 
charming creature and she was wise enough to 
show herself always good-natured. It was not long 
before mend)ers of the Imperial family, visiting 
the French capital, consented to receive her, and 
little by little she won her way back into Russian 
society; even those she knew to have spoken un- 
kindly of her received a warm welcome in her Paris 
homo. She was of the opinion that forgetfulness 
of the injuries one has received is a great help in 
life, and this princi])lc, coupled with exquisite tact, 
carried her triumphantly through many an un- 




Photof/ra/'li, Ihtderjvooil & Underwood, N. Y. 

(iUAND DUKK DiMlTUI PaVLOWJ'I 

Son ok Chanu Dukk 1'aui. 



Some Russian Morganatic Marriages 71 

pleasantness. After some years she was allowed 
to return to Russia for a few weeks, on pretext of 
being present at the wedding of one of the two 
daughters of her first marriage, and after this visit 
much of the prejudice against her must have 
vanished, because she regularly came back to St. 
Petersburg during the winter season, until at last 
it was rumoured that the Paris establishment of the 
Grand Duke was to be broken up and that he had 
begun the building of a splendid summer palace in 
Tzarskoie Selo, where he had decided to settle 
definitely, with only short absences abroad. 

When the war broke out, the Countess Hohen- 
felsen (such was the name of the morganatic wife 
of Paul Alexandrowitsch) made herself very use- 
ful in Red Cross work, and played her cards so 
cleverly that at last she persuaded the Czar to give 
her permission to drop the Teutonic title circum- 
stances had compelled her to bear and to adopt a 
Russian name. Nicholas II seemed convinced by 
the arguments she put forth and created her a 
Princess Paley in her own right, with the power to 
transmit her name and title to her three children 
by the Grand Duke Paul. 

Unfortunately, the war, which had thus put the 



72 Secrets of I^cthroned Royalty 

crowning touch to her social triumph, was also to 
prove her undoing, for one of the first actions of 
the Bolshevik government, after it had over- 
thrown the Kercnsky ministry, was to imprison the 
Grand Duke and his wife. The former was shot 
in the fortress, hut the Princess Paley escaped and 
made her way to Finhuid. Her only son was 
murdered hy the Bolsheviks and she is now quite 
alone in the world, except for her two little girls, 
and very badly ofP, it seems, as regards money 
matters. Her triumph was a short one and the 
night which followed w^as far darker than the 
briglitest hour of day had been. 

I have related the incident which crowned the 
social career of the Princess Paley and which 
brought about its supreme success. At the tune it 
took place it was perhaps more commented upon 
than anything had been for a long time in St. 
Petersburg, where the dismissal of a guest from 
the Winter Palace during an entertainment was 
an unheard-of event. The only time that anything 
of the kind had occurred previously was during the 
reign of Alexander II. The heroine of the story 
was a woman of exceptional beauty and equally 
exceptional reputation, who, having married (after 



Some Russian Morganatic Marriages 73 

a divorce attended by much scandal) a Chamber- 
lain of the Czar, by name Mr. 15., made ber aj)pear- 
ance at a ball at the Nicholas Hall, which she had 
every right to attend, owing to her husband's posi- 
tion. Her unusual loveliness made her the cynosure 
of all eyes, and a young aide-de-camp of the Czar, 
just arrived in the capital and knowing nothing 
of its gossip, sought an introduction and asked her 
to dance a (jiiadrille with him. He knew that his 
partner would excite general admiration wherever 
he chose to place her, so he went ])oldly to the end 
of the ball room where the then heiress to the throne 
was dancing and placed himself opposite her with 
Madame B. The Emperor saw them and, furious 
at this lack of respect for his daughter-in-law, went 
up to the unfortunate aide-de-camp and said to him 
in a loud voice: "No one wearing my aiguillettes 
has a right to dance with such a woman as you have 
brought here," and forthwith he commanded a 
Court official to lead the couple out of the room 
and eject them from the palace. 

History does not tell what Madame B's feelings 
were after this adventure, but it did not disturb 
her equanimity for any length of time. She, also, 
went to live in Paris, where she bought a beautiful 



74 SrcR'ls of I )rlIir()iKtl l^oyally 

house .Mild fontrivrd lo /^-.liii ;i<hnill;m('{' into Ihc 
iiiosl sclt'cl circles, owing- to licr cli.Mrms, cspccijilly 
lo lu'i- woikIci fill voice. S!ic soon hccaiiu* one of 
llic <|neens of T.Miis society :muI died :\ few inonllis 
Ixforc llu' war. llcr ndvcnlnre in llie Winter 
I*:ilnce had been in I he nieunliiuc rorgoLlcu by 
everyone incluchnt;' lu rseir. 



VJ 



THE KMI'JIKSS AJ.KXAXDRA AND 
HER SISTER 

TifK unfortunate Czarina Alexandra of Russia 
will remain one of the enigmas of history. With 
the exception, perhaps, of Marie Antoinette no 
woman has heen more slandered than she, and few 
hav(,' had to hear thr; hiirden of so atrocious a fate. 
Perhaps the n^al se(Tet of her life will never he dis- 
covered or revealcfl, the IJolshf-viks having taken 
gcKxl care to destroy all documents which could 
shed any light on the mystery that surrounded the 
last Empress who shared the throne of an auto- 
cratic Czar. From the first hour of her marriage, 
this victim of a cruel destiny succeeded in arousing 
the antagonism of almost all the people with wlujm 
her position brf>ught her intf> contact. It must he 
confessed that she was not a sympathetic person, 
and she was very stupid, though, unfortunately for 
her, she had heen led to believe that she was clever. 
75 



76 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

This explains, perhaps, how she contrived to make 
herself so tinpopular. The Empress had high- 
flown ideas of reforming the world, and, alas, the 
world objects to being told that it is in nrgent need 
of reform. The Russian world, represented by St. 
Petersburg society, objected very much to this part 
of Alexandra's programme, and it immediately 
gave her to understand that such was the case. She 
was a beautiful creature, one of the loveliest of her 
generation, but she was not an amiable woman, 
and she did not understand in the least how to 
appeal to the masses, who at last turned from her. 
People began almost at once to discuss her move- 
ments, her actions, her very words, though these 
were but few and far between. She did not possess 
the gift of small talk, and she had a habit of dis- 
couraging those who tried to please her. As an in- 
stance of the latter fact, I shall relate an incident 
which caused much mirth at the time it occurred. 

Among the ladies who were presented to the 
young Empress immediately after her marriage 
was one who had known her mother, the late Grand 
Duchess of Ilesse. She felt sure that she would 
please the youthful sovereign by mentioning the 
fact and adding a few words in praise of her 




international I'ilin Service 

THK liATK CZAKINA Al.KXANDKA OK KlISHIA 



Empress Alexandra and Her Sister 77 

mother. Indeed, if the truth he told, she felt con- 
fident that in doing so she would win for herself a 
special place in Alexandra's esteem. On the day 
appointed for her presentation she repaired to Ihe 
Palace of Tzarskoie Selo, and was ushered into a 
room where the Empress was standing, surrounderJ 
by several ladies-in-waiting, with two pages hold- 
ing her long train. ^J'his rather abashed her visitor, 
who had been used to the free and easy way in 
which the Empress Marie Feodorowna welcomed 
her guests, putting them at once at their ease; 
nevertheless, she made the speech she harj prepared 
beforehand and the following dialogue took place: 

Lady: "I feel srj honoured at being presented 
to Your Majesty; the more so that I ha/l the 
honour of knowing very well the late Grand 
Duchess of Hesse who was always so kind trj me." 

Empress, after a long silence, in a hesitating 
voice: "lleally! Where did you meet Mamma?" 

Lady: "In I^ondon and in Darmstadt, Your 
Majesty, where I was several times the C^ran<i 
Duke's guest, and I had the honour of seeing Yr>ur 
Majesty when a baby." 

Empress, after another long pause: "Ah, and 
how did you get to Darmsta^lt?" 



78 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

Lady, by this time in a thoroiiglily bad temper: 
"In a railway train, Your Majesty, with a first 
class ticket." 

A nod of the head dismissed her, but, of course, 
mutual irritation followed the interview. The Em- 
press complained tliat the lady had been imperti- 
nent, whilst the latter declared that the sovereign 
was a fool, and a badly behaved one into the bar- 
gain. She related stories to show that the Dowager 
Empress was always delighted when she met any- 
one who had known her people or could talk about 
them, and Alexandra Feodorowna found herself 
saddled with one more enemy amongst the ranks 
of those who were at first disposed to be friendly. 

Many incidents of the same kind occurred and 
they did not tend to make Alexandra popular. 
T>/ater on she was reproached for having meddled 
in political matters and for upholding her husband 
in his determination not to grant any of the re- 
forms of which the country stood in urgent need. 
If the Empress had been a frivolous woman, had 
cared for pretty gowns, dancing, and other things 
of the kind, she w^ould have been far better liked 
and appreciated. As it was, she was considered a 
trouble fete, as they say in French, and it was re- 



Empress Alexandra and Her Sister 79 

marked that her presence in a room was sufficient 
to produce an icy chill, and to prevent any kind 
of enjoyment, no matter how harmless. She could 
not unbend and, thanks to her, the Russian Court 
became as stiff as it had previously been informal. 
Of coin-se, Alexandra felt that she was unpopular 
and this increased her irritation and her intense 
dislike of Russia and everything Russian. She re- 
tired more and more into the solitude of her palace 
of Tzarskoie Selo, or of IJvadia in the Crimea, and 
St. Petersburg society saw less and less of her with 
every year that passed. Of course, people resented 
this, and after having discussed the conduct of the 
Empress they began to criticise sharply and, 
finally, to attribute to motives which did not exist 
her love for solitude or, rather, for the society of 
two or three persons whom she would have done 
better to have excluded from her friendship. 

I do not believe for one moment all the accusa- 
tions of immorality which were launched against 
the last Czarina of Russia. She was a woman of 
high moral principles and, besides, so haughty and 
proud that it is quite out of the question that she 
could ever have lowered herself to the extent of 
forgetting her duties as a wife and mother. But 



8o Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

she was not absolutely sane, and the tendency to 
religious mysticism, which was one of the strange 
traits of her altogether curious character, certainly 
led her to do things which were bound to show her 
in an unfavourable light to the public, always eager 
for scandal everywhere. 

One of the misfortunes of Alexandra was the 
great inlluence M'ielded over her by her sister, tho 
Grand Duchess Elizabeth, whose conduct was 
quite notorious until (after the murder of her hus- 
band, the Grand Duke Sergius) she became a nun 
in a convent which she had herself founded, and 
where, in spite of her profession of humility, she 
continued to lead the luxurious existence of a Rus- 
sian Grand Duchess, 

This, however, was much later. She had been 
in Russia for something like ten years when her 
sister came to join her. She tried to direct her, to 
lead her, and through her to influence the Em- 
peror. The Grand Duke Sergius was alive at the 
time — a very ambitious man who aspired to rule 
Russia in the name of his nephew. lie and his wife 
tried to prejudice his young sister-in-law against 
all the people likely to thwart him in his schemes, 
or to open her eyes to the nefarious part he was 



Empress Alexandra and Her Sister 8i 

playing in her life. He tried to surround her with 
his own devotees, and the Grand Duchess Ehza- 
beth helped him in his schemes. She was secretly- 
jealous of the Empress, whom she did not consider 
fit for the position into which chance had thrust 
her, and she spoke of it openly among her friends 
who, of course, repeated it abroad, so that in a very 
short time it became known that Alexandra was a 
capricious, bad-tempered woman, who cared for 
nothing but her own pleasure and her native land. 
It was Elizabeth Feodorowna who was the first to 
speak of the Empress's German tendencies and to 
deplore them in public. And yet, in spite of this 
hypocrisy and of all the numerous charges against 
her, the Grand Duchess was more popular than 
her sister, perhaps because of the exaggerated af- 
fection which she pretended to have for everything 
that was Russian and orthodox. She wished to pose 
as a victim of circumstances brought about by a 
mistaken marriage; she aspired to acquire the 
reputation of a saint, which she was not; and the 
curious fact is that she succeeded in this enter- 
prise. 

The Empress was a far more honest woman than 
her sister ; but she never got credit for this honesty. 



82 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

Elizabeth Feodorowna reminds one, in a way, of 
the great Catherine, because, hke this famous 
woman, she invariably showed- kindness towards 
the numerous favourites of her stormy youth. Even 
when circumstances had parted her from them she 
remembered them; she was solicitous for their wel- 
fare, and tried to further them in their careers 
by recommending them to the Emperor for the 
various positions and appointments for which she 
considered them fitted. Towards women she was 
kind and affectionate, never noticing their frailties 
or peculiarities, and was rarely heard to utter an 
ill-natured word. It would have been well for the 
Empress Alexandra had she imitated her elder sis- 
ter in this respect. 

One of the Empress's ladies-in-waiting (who 
was obliged, shortly after her appointment, to re- 
sign her position, owing to a certain scandal) re- 
lated to me the following incident, which throws a 
curious light on the general conduct of the Grand 
Duchess Elizabeth: 

In spite of her constant affectations of French 
sympathies, she did not approve of the then French 
Ambassador at the Court of St. Petersburg, Count 
de Montebello, still less of his wife, whom she con- 




Photograph, Underwood & Undcrivood, N. Y. 

Grand Duke Seuoius and Gisand JJuchkss Eijzahkth 



Empress Alexandra and Her Sister 83 

sidered vulgar and ill-bred. One afternoon when 
she was drinking tea with the Empress and Em- 
peror she contrived to lead the conversation to this 
subject, and told her brother-in-law that he ought 
not to become too familiar with the representative 
of the French Republic, and that he would do well 
to forbid the younger Grand Dukes from frequent- 
ing his house, which, she declared, was far too much 
of a "Liberty Hall." 

Nicholas liked the de Montebellos, and with 
reason, for they were both very charming and 
amiable; besides he felt indignant that his sister- 
in-law should try to control his actions and treat 
him like a child. But, irritated though he was at 
her interference, he was too timid to protest; so, in 
his efforts to maintain his dignity, he found nothing 
better to say than that it was impossible for him to 
prevent even a member of his own family from 
visiting a man who was the official representative 
of the French Republic. This remark so angered 
Elizabeth Feodoro^vna that for once she forgot 
herself and exclaimed: Tie may represent the 
French Republic, but his wife represents the 
French Commune." 

If all we hear be true, it was the Grand Duchess 



84 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

who introduced Raspoutine to the Empress, though 
subsequently she joined the ranks of the famous 
peasant's enemies, quarrelling with her sister in 
consequence of the latter' s infatuation for this 
mysterious personage, an infatuation for which she 
was herself partly responsible. 

All this has now passed into history, if history 
can be associated with the miserable Palace 
intrigues which, more than anything else, brought 
about the sudden downfall of the Romanoffs. 
Most of those who participated in them have paid 
with their lives for their folly, ambition and 
cupidity. The unfortunate Empress Alexandra, 
her children, innocent though they were, the Czar, 
whose weakness of character hastened the 
catastrophe, the Grand Duchess Elizabeth, Ras- 
poutine, the so-called prophet — they have all dis- 
appeared, slain either by noble or by vile hands. 
They were as helpless as leaves that flutter from 
the tree, and when the storm broke over poor, un- 
fortunate, betrayed Russia, like leaves they were 
swept away. 



VII 



LOVE AFFAIRS OF THE GRAND DUKE 
MICHAEL 

When Nicholas II ascended the throne of Rus- 
sia he had two brothers, the eldest of whom, the 
Grand Duke George, was proclaimed heir pre- 
sumptive to the crown, and awarded the title of 
Cesarewitsch. In the Imperial Manifest granting 
him this title it was expressly stated that he was 
to enjoy it only until the birth of a son to the Czar, 
but as the young Empress gave birth to four girls 
in succession it seemed as if the Grand Duke 
George would really be the future Emperor. As 
things turned out, he did actually enjoy his posi- 
tion until his death, which occurred rather unex- 
pectedly in the Caucasus where he had settled per- 
manently, giving his health as an excuse, but in 
reality because he had secretly married a lady 
whose entry into the Imperial family would have 
been seriously objected to by both the Czar and 
the Empress Dowager. The Grand Duke had 
85 



86 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

suffered from tuberculosis from childhood, and 
for a long time the doctors had entertained no 
hopes of his recovering sufficiently to be able to 
lead a normal life. Nevertheless, his death was a 
great surprise and took place under mysterious 
circumstances which were never entirely explained. 
He was found dead beside his bicycle on the high 
road that led to the village of Abbas Touman 
where he resided. It was afterwards said that he 
had broken a blood vessel, but this was never 
proven, and the case remained open for any 
amount of suppositions. 

The Grand Duke had been a clever, serious 
man, far more intelligent than his brother, the 
Czar, and gifted with a charming disposition which 
had endeared him to all those who had ever had 
anything to do with him. He was exceedingly re- 
gretted, the more so that at the time he passed 
away his younger brother, who took his place as 
heir presumptive to the throne, Michael Alex- 
androwitsch, was a mere boy, about whom very 
little was known by the general pubhc. He had 
been his father's favourite, and was said to re- 
semble him more than did any of his other children, 
a circumstance that had greatly contributed to his 




International Film Service 



(IRANI) DlKIO j\Ii(;iiAi:i- 



Love Affairs of Grand Duke Michael 87 

popiihirity, the late C/ahv having been more be- 
loved by his siil)jeet.s than any previous Russian 
Emperor. 

The young Grand Duke remained with his 
mother after his father's death, and owing to this 
his attitude towards his elder brother became 
rather strained, as relations were not very close be- 
tween the l^alace of Tzarskf)ie Selo and that of 
Gatehina where the Dowager Empress s})ent a 
great deal of her time. Existence was rather 
austere in that grimy old castle and did not offer 
many amusements to a young man of Michael 
Alexandrowitsch's age. Not having anything to 
do, or at least, not being sufTiciently occupied, the 
Grand Duke formed the haf)it of s[)ending a great 
deal of his time with his sister, the Grand Duchess 
Olga, who also lived part of the year at Gatschina 
with her mother. 

Now the Cirand Duchess had among her ladies- 
in-waiting a charming young girl called Mademoi- 
selle Kossikowsky, highly connected and exceed- 
ingly popidar among the younger generation of St. 
Petersburg society. She was not, strictly speak- 
ing, beautiful, but possessed great charm and was 
a wonderfully bright conversationalist. Michael, 



88 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

who was of a more serious frame of mind than the 
other members of his familj'', found great pleasure 
in talking with her and discussing many subjects 
which did not interest those around them. They 
soon became friends and at last the day came when 
the Grand Duke discovered that he was very much 
in love with his sister's lady-in-waiting. 

This young man, in spite of the fact that he had 
been born a Romanoff and bred in the traditions of 
this race, was the soul of honour. He had inherited 
his father's inflexible honesty, with his mother's 
high moral principles, and he never for a moment 
thought of doing otherwise than marrying Made- 
moiselle Kossikowsky. It seems that some of his 
friends suggested to him that he ought rather to 
try to persuade her to become his mistress, but 
Michael scorned such an idea, and immediately 
went to seek the Dowager Empress to ask her to 
intercede with the Czar on his behalf. 

But his confession did not meet with the hoped- 
for response from the Empress. She dearly loved 
this son of hers who in so many ways reminded her 
of the husband she had been so devoted to, and she 
was, besides, ambitious for him. He stood in the 
position of heir to his brother's throne, and it would 



Love Affairs of Grand Duke Michael 89 

never do for a future Emperor of Russia to wed a 
potential subject. There were traditions that 
ought to be observed, and Marie Feodorowna had 
been all her life a great stickler for etiquette. She, 
therefore, kindly but firmly told the Grand Duke 
that she did not see how he could carry out his 
wishes and that the best thing he could do would 
be to abandon the idea of marrying Mademoiselle 
Kossikowsky. 

The Empress had at that time plans for an al- 
liance between Michael and the youngest daughter 
of the late Duke of Edinburgh and the Grand 
Duchess Marie Alexandrowna of Russia, with 
whom she had always been on most intimate and 
affectionate terms, and she grew very angry at the 
thought of any interference with these plans. Her 
anger caused her, perhaps, to reply to her son more 
severely than she would have otherwise done. She 
had always been very authoritative with her chil- 
dren, far more so than Alexander III, and she had 
been feared by them to an extent that seemed al- 
most incredible, considering her gentle kindly ap- 
pearance; she hated the idea that anything she had 
decided upon should be questioned by her family. 

I remember one amusing incident which illus- 



90 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

trates this point. When her eldest daughter, the 
Crrand Duchess Xenia, was about to be married to 
her cousin, the Grand Duke Alexander Michaylo- 
witsch, it was decided that the young couple should 
spend their honeymoon at a httle shooting box 
called Repscha, which was fitted up for them with 
great luxury and taste. There were some interior 
arrangements connected with the sleeping quarters 
of the newly-wedded pair which the Empress had 
decided upon and which did not meet with the ap- 
proval of the Grand Duke, who asked that some 
alterations be made in the original plan. But he 
had not reckoned with Marie Feodorowna, who did 
not intend any of her arrangements to be ques- 
tioned, and she expressed herself in most vehement 
terms concerning what she called the "unheard-of 
interference of the Grand Duke." 

"Can you imagine?" she exclaimed, when dis- 
cussing the matter with one of her personal friends, 
"can you imagine? He wanted things changed 
that I had decided upon ! But I told him my opin- 
ion of him, and advised him to remember that 
Repscha was my house, not his. My house," she 
added, with emphasis on the pronoun. 

The Empress, as I have just said, disapproved 



Love Affairs of Grand Duke Michael 91 

entirely of her son's affection for Mademoiselle 
Kossikowsky, and she immediately wrote to the 
girl's parents asking them to remove their daughter 
from the household of the Grand Duchess Olga 
and to take her abroad. She also insisted on the 
Grand Duke Michael being refused permission to 
leave Russia to join her, as he had expressed his 
intention of doing. 

In presence of such strenuous opposition to his 
most cherished desires the young man had to yield 
and, though he refused to entertain the matrimonial 
plans made by his mother and brother on his be- 
half, he gave up the idea of wedding Mademoiselle 
Kossikowsky, who must have congratulated herself 
more than once during the last two years or so on 
having escaped the fate of becoming the wife of a 
Romanoff. 

The Grand Duke was at that time a captain in 
the Regiment of the Yellow Cuirassiers, stationed 
at Gatschina. Among the officers of that corps was 
a certain Captain Wulffert who had married a 
very pretty and exceedingly intelligent divorcee. 
She was most attractive and her house was a meet- 
ing place for all her husband's comrades, who al- 
ways found there a pleasant welcome and an ex- 



92 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

cellcnt dinner. Grand Duke ^lichael took to fre- 
quenting her house and pouring into her ear the 
sad tale of his love story and the opposition he had 
encountered. 

JMadaine Wulffert did not mean to lose the op- 
portunity thus presented of improving her social 
position. She played her cards exceedingly well 
and not only refrained from mentioning that 
alarming and obnoxious word "marriage" to the 
Grand Duke, but made him feel, on the contrary, 
that for love of him she was sacrificing all that a 
woman holds dear, without asking anji:hing of him 
in return. 

This clever conduct on her part had the desired 
effect, for, though everyone in St. Petersburg be- 
came aware in a short time of IMichael's romance 
with pretty ^ladame Wulffert, no one connected 
it with the possibility of her ever becoming his 
morganatic wife. Captain Wulffert s.. wed him- 
self a man wise in his generation, because he fur- 
nished his wife with all the reasons necessary to 
allow her to obtain a divorce, and when this had 
become an accomplished fact she returned to the 
capital and settled there in a magnificent apart- 
ment, which she furnished with exquisite taste. 




International I-'ilii 



Service 

CjIkamj Ducuksk (Ji,(;a ok Russia 

Sl.STKK OK TIIK KoKMKK ('zAK 



Love Affairs of Grand Duke Michael 93 

The rent, it was whispered, was paid by the Grand 
Duke. 

This kind of thing went on for some time, and 
though the Dowager Empress and all the Imperial 
family were very sorry for this infatuation, as they 
called it, of their young relative, they all felt that 
it would be very unwise on their part to interfere, 
lecause it was — so they imagined — bound to die a 
natural death in time, if no opposition were brought 
to bear upon it. 

Madame Wulffert, however, did not mean it to 
die at all, the more so when she gave birth to a son 
whom it was her firm intention his father should 
acknowledge. She never mentioned this possibility 
to him, never complained, never suggested to him 
what he ought to do, but played on his affections 
and on his feeling of chivalry to such an extent 
that one day the world was startled by the news 
that Michael Alexandrowitsch, who stood next but 
one in the immediate succession to the throne, had 
married, in Vienna, Madame Natalie Wulffert, 
without asking permission of anyone — not even the 
Czar. 

The latter was furious, and for once found him- 
self in accord with the Dowager Empress as to the 



94 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

lU't'ossily of |)iiiiisliin^- his brolluM* lor this act of 
iiultpcTulciuv. Hut tlir inaiuuT in wliii'b lu' did so 
Avas as iiuroiliinalc as it was iiiiwarrantablc. The 
(irand Duko was declared l)y the l^'iuporor to be 
inroiiipctciit to innnago liis own ])ro|)crty and for- 
tune, wliieh was secinestered and ])ut under the con- 
trol of tlie INIinisler ol' the Imperial Household. 
lie had. however, foreseen that sonielhini»- of tlie 
kind might take place, though he had never sus- 
[)eeled that the l'mj)eror\s displeasure would go 
further than to deprive him of his rank in the army; 
so, as 11 resource for evil days, he had transferred 
large sums of money abroad, which c^f course could 
not be touched or interfered with, and be settled 
(piietly in I'ngland witli his newly-wedded wife, 
having rented the beautiful domain of Knebworth 
from Tiord liytton. 

IMichaers wife showed berself extremely tactful 
in all her actions. She encouraged him In paying 
every attention to bis aunt. Queen Alexandra of 
Kngland, and trying to obtain her protection, but 
sbe never asked to be introduced to her, and kept 
discreetly in the background, even going to the 
lengtb of absenting berself from Knebwortb on one 
occasion when some male relatives of the Grand 



Love Affairs of (irand Duke Michael 95 

Duke came to see him. She won golden opinions 
everywhere, and at last it was said that the Queen 
had expressed a desire to see her nephew's wife» 
who was duly introdiiccd and who pleased her so 
much that she wrote to her sister, the Dowager 
l^.rn press of Russia, suggesting that she should re- 
ceive her as her daughter-in-law, saying that her 
conduct was heyond all })raise and that she was 
proving herself an excellent wife. 

'J'his kind interferen(;e on the part of his aunt 
had its effect, and it was whispered in St. Peters- 
burg that the (irand Duke was to he forgiven and 
allowed to return to Ilussia to resume his former 
position at the Imperial Court. Then the great 
war })roke t)ut and settled the (question, though in a 
way ((uite different from that Michael Alcxandro- 
witsch would have chosen had he been consulted. 

The (irand Duke, as soon as hostilities broke 
out, telegraf)hed to the Czar, asking his permission 
to go to the front. 'J'his was granted, of course, 
and he was put in command of the "wild division," 
as it was called, whi(;h consisted exclusively of 
Siberian troops. He soon became the idol of his 
men and the most j)oj)ular of llussian leaders. 
During the whole Carpathian campaign he shared 



96 Secrets of Dcthroiicii Royalty 

tlio (lnn«»crs of his soldiers, and novcr allowed him- 
self any luxury whieh they did not have, sleeping 
in llu^ o\)ci\ \y\[\\ Wwiu, and living- Ihe same life 
they did, without the least indulL»enee as regards 
nieals or anything els(\ He soon I)(>eanie a [xnver. 
The army wouhl have been olad had he stood in 
the position ol* the C'/.ar, and made no secret of this 
wish. 

At the time I was in Petro^rad — innnediately 
at'liM- \\\v lirsl INlanh Kevolution "gossip said that 
it was throui^ii his wife's inlluenee C J rand Duke 
INIiehael had refused the throne whieh his brother 
had abdiealcnl in his favour. It was said she was 
afraid that if he beeame C/.iw he would think him- 
self oblij;ed to divoree her and marry some royal 
pvineess. Personally. I do not believe this tale at 
all. Vor one thing", the foiiner Madame >\'uHrert 
(who after her marriage liad obtained the title of 
Countess Brassow) was too sure of her husband's 
affection ever to have felt anxious about the possi- 
bility of his forsaking tier. Then, Miehael him- 
self was far too nuieh attached to her, and to 
the two soTis she had borne him, to have any idea 
of se])aration from her. It is far more likely that 
husband and wife understood tliat they would be 



Love Affairs of (irand Duke Michael 97 

unable to iriake a stanrJ against the j[rrowing forces 
of anar(;hy ahout to sweep tlie country, and that 
they hoped, hy waiting a while and seeing how 
tilings turned out, they would be better able to 
come to a decision as to what they could best do 
for their own welfare as well as that of Russia. 

The fate of the Grand Duke Michael and his 
family is one of the secrets of the Bolshevik Revo- 
lution. All that is known about them is that they 
were arrested and (conveyed to Perm, after which 
nothing definite was given out as to what had be- 
fallen them. Various rumours have reached us 
that the only brother of Nicholas II has shared his 
fate, but no facts are known and probably never 
will be until some kind of order shall have replaced 
the present confusion and anarchy in what, a few 
years ago, was the great and mighty Russian Em- 
pire. 



PART II 
AUSTRIA 



THE LOVE AFFAIRS OF 
FRANCIS JOSEPH 

Few royal houses have had more scandals at- 
tached to them than the house of Hapsburg. With 
all their bigotry, their devotion to the Roman 
Catholic Church, and their religious fanaticism, the 
several members of this house were absolutely un- 
scrupulous in private life and seemed to do their 
utmost to justify the remark of old Prince Kaunitz 
after the death of the great Maria Theresa: "With 
her has disappeared the last honest Hapsburg." 
In fact, she will live in Austrian history as the last 
of the rulers belonging to this dynasty whose 
morals remained unquestioned all through her life 
and who deserved to end her days respected by 
everybody (even by her foes) as a woman, regard- 
less of how her integrity may have been questioned 
as a monarch. After she passed away the race to 
which she belonged dwindled into a state of moral 



102 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

anarchy, which nt last brought about the cataclysm 
in which most of the European royal houses per- 
ished. 

In the long list of Austrian Sovereigns the late 
Francis Joseph will hold no mean place; not on 
account of his good qualities, but because of the 
fact that in his person the worthlessness and the 
w^ant of moral backbone characteristic of the Haps- 
burgs were evident in an unprecedented degree. In 
a certain sense he was the last Austrian Emperor 
of that line, because his nephew and successor 
reigned far too short a time to be considered as 
anything but a figurehead. Besides, Francis 
Joseph had for so long occupied his throne, and 
had seen such political storms transform his Em- 
pire that he had come to be considered as the very 
emblem of the nation at whose head he stood and 
over which he was destined to rule for sixty-nine 
long years. During all that length of time his al- 
most sole object was the gratification of his own 
personal desires. It would be difficult to count the 
number of intrigues in which Francis Joseph was 
engaged. But in none of them did he ever forget 
his rank and status in the world; even in his most 
amorous transports he was condescending, and 




f'holOf/riil'h, I'inil 'J liom/'son 

Khancis Joski'm in 'I'yuoi.kan (oktijmk 



The Love Affairs of Francis Joseph 103 

gave the lady of his choice to understand that he 
was conferring upon her an immense favour by 
deigning to look at her. 

An amusing story is told relative to this pe- 
culiarity of his. lie once fell in love with a Polish 
countess who, though not considered an aristocrat 
in her native land, was very well known in Vienna, 
where she was received even in the exclusive circles 
which boasted of the thirty-two quarterings con- 
sidered indispensable to existence. She was 
extraordinarily beautiful, and the Emperor had al- 
ways been partial to beauty, which explains the 
fact that from the very first day that he set eyes 
on her he was fascinated by her charms. Of course, 
he never doubted but that she would feel extremely 
honoured by the attentions he paid her. Great, 
therefore, was his surprise to find that she remained 
absolutely indifferent to them, and even tried to 
avoid him. This angered him, the more so that at 
the time he was still comparatively a young man 
and considered very good looking. So one day he 
sufficiently relaxed his severe code of etiquette to 
call upon the object of his fancy, and explained to 
her with great eriiprcssement that she should be 
duly grateful to him for having selected her from 



104 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

among' so many other women in ^'icnna as tlie most 
worthy to receive liis atVeetions, Tlie Countess 
listened to him in silence, then gravely asked him 
to tell her how he conld reconcile his conviction 
that he was conferring npon her an unpreeedenteil 
hononr hy choosing her for his mistress with his 
religions principles which ought to have forliidden 
his looking at another man's wife. The Kmperor 
was taken ahack for a moment, then quickly col- 
lected his scattered wits and informed her that in 
his position he was not hound hy the same rules 
which governed common mortals; therefore she 
need not fear the wrath of God if she gratified his 
wishes and consented to add to his happiness. His- 
tory does not relate whether or not the lady was 
convinced hy this argument. 

There is another tale connected with the love 
affairs of the l^mperor which, if true, proves that 
he was an eminently practical man. One of his 
numerous mistresses bore him a son and he 
hastened, as soon as he became aware of the fact, to 
have her locked up in a private lunatic asylum, for 
fear she might bother him later on; then he had the 
boy given up to the care of a shoemaker in Iim- 
spruck in the Tyrol, where he was educated as a 



The Love Affairs of Francis Joseph 105 

child of the latter, who was harulsorriely paid for 
taking care of him, hut remained in ignorance of 
his real parentage. 

Francis Joseph, almost to the end of his life, 
continued to he very easily impressed hy feminine 
heauty. At all the halls given in the Iloflmrg he 
was seen to scrutinise intently the ladies assemhled 
in the apartments of the Imperial residence, and 
afterwards would make remarks on their good 
looks. Dress also interested him and he was par- 
ticular as to the style of costume he considered 
suitahlc to be worn on such rx^casions. When 
fashion decreed that suede gloves were the proper 
thing to wear in the evening, the Emperor put his 
veto u[)on them, anrl one day when a lady belong- 
ing to the diphimatic corps, just arrived from 
Paris, appeared in his presence wearing these ob- 
jectionable gloves, he sent a chamberlain to fetch 
a pair of white kid ones, which he presented to her 
himself, with the playful remark that they would 
match her frock far better than the ugly fawn- 
coloured things she had chosen. 

This man, who was considered the most fickle in 
creation, was at last conquered and subdued by one 
woman who, for something like forty years, re- 



io6 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

niaineil Iiis friend after having been something 
more, and who influeneed him not only in small but 
also in important matters. She was an actress, 
by name Catlierine Sehratt, n clever, fascinating 
creature, who had the good sense to avoid intrigues 
and not lend herself to the many people who would 
have liked to make use of her for their own aims or 
ambitions. She had begini by playing the comedy 
of disinterestedness, refusing five out of every six 
presents which the Emperor wished to make her. 
Her influence over him dated from the day when 
he first saw her on the stage of the Hof Theatre 
of Vienna, and made overtures which she repulsed, 
saying that her home was not one in which she 
could receive her Sovereign, whilst she was far too 
honest a woman to allow herself to be calunmiated, 
as would inevitably be the case should she consent 
to come to the Ilofburg to meet him. 

Francis Joseph was so delighted with this reply 
that, setting aside the etiquette he generally ob- 
served, he appeared one afternoon in the modest 
apartment occupied by Frau Sehratt, where he had 
himself annoiuiced as Count von Ilohenembs, a 
name he generally adopted when he was travelling 



The Love Affairs of Francis Joseph 107 

The actress was too intelligent to show any 
astonishment, so she accepted as a matter of course 
this extraordinary action on the part of Francis 
Joseph and proceeded to put him at his ease, with- 
out, however, allowing him to indulge in any of 
his customary familiarities. lie left her with a 
faint, though unacknowledged wish to see her 
again, and with a desire to overcome the unex- 
pected resistance he had met. Catherine Schratt 
was shrewd enough to make this resistance last long 
enough to establish herself firmly in the heart of 
the selfish old Kmperor, before he got weary of his 
efforts to subdue it. She persuaded him that she 
really loved him with a tenderness such as he had 
not inspired in any other woman, and she was sharp 
enough to win the respect of the Empress Eliza- 
beth, towards whom she showed herself most re- 
spectful and whose part she invariably took in the 
numerous quarrels with the Emperor that embit- 
tered the Empress's life and drove her to seek 
refuge in solitude and foreign travel. It was said 
in Vienna's court circles that sometimes when 
Elizabeth wanted to obtain her husband's consent 
to something which she knew he was not likely to 
approve of, she sought the help of Catherine 



io8 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

Schratt, who always contrived to get her what she 
wanted, a circumstance which finally brought about 
a strong and lasting friendship between the two 
ladies, who, according to all precedent, should have 
hated each other, but who, on the contrary, grew to 
rely on each other more and more, thus making life 
more comfortable r.nd pleasant for them both. 

After the assassination of the Empress at 
Geneva the influence of Catherine Schratt in- 
creased considerably, until at last the Archduchess 
Valeria, the Emperor's youngest daughter, became 
seriously alarmed and proceeded to remonstrate 
with him on his ever-growing affection for the 
actress whom she feared he would be persuaded to 
marry. She need not have had any fear on that 
point, because Francis Joseph was far too much 
of a Hapsburg to dream of lowering his Imperial 
prestige and dignity by allying himself with any 
woman not of noble birth, whilst, on the other 
hand, Frau Schratt was much too clever to con- 
sent to an act for which, she knew but too well, she 
would be reproached most bitterly, later on, by the 
very person least justified in doing so. 

The Archduchess, however, was not intelligent 
enough to be a good judge of character, so she 



The Love Affairs of Francis Joseph 109 

tried to use her influence against the actress, and 
she succeeded in doing so to the extent that the 
Emperor at last promised her to give up the con- 
nection, provided she, on her part, would, with her 
children, take up her residence with him and bear 
him company. 

Valerie was enthusiastic at the proposal and 
hastened to remove to Schonbrunn. But alas, her 
joy did not last long, for she very quickly discov- 
ered that her father's temper was such that exist- 
ence with him was unendurable. So she repented 
of her former prejudice against the actress and 
implored her to resume her previous relations with 
the Emperor, after which she hastened to return 
to her own castle of Wallsee, in Lower Austria, 
and it became an acknowledged fact in the Im- 
perial Family that Catherine Schratt was the only 
person capable of bearing with the cantankerous 
character and unsurpassed selfishness of old Fran- 
cis Joseph. 

She never left him again and did not survive him 
for any length of time. The aged friends died 
within a few months of each other and, fortunately 
for Catherine Schratt, she did not see the catas- 
trophe which brought about the fall of the Haps- 



IK) Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

burg dynasty. In a ccrlaiii sense, slie deserved to 
be spared it, but as for I'raneis .T()se])b, it is dillicult 
not to feel that it was almost unjust of Providenee 
that be was not Jillowed to see tlie eonsecjuenees of 
tbe many politieal and moral erimes be bad eom- 
mitted during his long reign. 



II 



THE IDIOSYNCRASIES OF THE 
HAPSBURGS 

The Hapsburgs were not mentally well bal- 
anced, which is rather a curious fact considering 
the small amount of brains which they as a general 
njle possessed. The brothers of Francis Joseph, 
with the exception of the unfortunate Maximilian, 
who was to meet with such a sad end in Mexico, 
could not have invented gunpowder, had they tried 
ever so hard. The eldest one, Charles Ludwig, did 
absolutely nothing remarkable in his life beyond 
marrying three wives; the first two he worried into 
their graves, while the third and last had anything 
but a pleasant time during the twenty odd years 
that she was condemned to live with him. 

She was a clever woman, this dark-eyed Portu- 
guese princess who, for family reasons, had wedded 
this very poor specimen of humanity who did noth- 
ing but bully her and make her generally uncom- 



112 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

fortable; but she contrived somehow to get on with 
liim and to hve through the term of penal servitude 
v>'hieli union witli him implied. And she did some- 
thing more: she succeeded in making friends with 
her step-children. Having at first looked with dis- 
approval upon their father's third venture into mat- 
rimony, they became entirely devoted to their step- 
mother, and she proved their best protector in after 
hfe, not only from the Archduke Charles Ludwig, 
but also the Emperor, who had a great respect for 
her and, strange to say, stood slightly in awe of his 
bright sister-in-law, the only member of the Ilaps- 
burg family who had the courage to discuss and 
argue with him, and even at times to tell him some 
hard truths. 

The Archduchess Maria Theresa (such was her 
name) had the tact to respect the old traditions 
of the Imperial family, whilst continually setting 
them in defiance, but she contrived to do this in 
such an unobtrusive way that no one noticed it, 
and she managed to win for herself far greater 
liberty of action than the Empress Elizabeth had 
ever done. Her serene indifference to criticism 
was just as lofty as her disdain for the people who 
dared indulge in it at her expense. 




Photorjral'li 



AkCHDUKK FkANCIH FeKUINAM) and HiH WlFK, TjrE 
COUNTKSS SOIMIIA CHOTEK 



The Idiosyncrasies of the Hapsburgs 113 

The youngest brother of the Emperor, the Arch- 
duke Louis Victor, had at one time been a very 
popular personage in Viennese society. He went 
about a good deal and did not display the same 
affection for exclusive circles as did the other 
Hapsburgs of his generation. He was in perpet- 
ual money difficulties, a fact which had very much 
to do with the partiality he displayed for rich peo- 
ple, even when they belonged to the Jewish race. 
With the help of the Princess Pauline Metternich, 
whose intimate friend he remained for a good many 
years, he launched in Viennese society the famous 
Baron Hirsch, without, however, entirely succeed- 
ing in imposing upon the haughty Serene High- 
nesses who constituted the cream of this agglom- 
eration of human beings. 

There was one story concerning this affection of 
Francis Joseph's brother for the wealthy capital- 
ist, which was being bandied about in the Austrian 
capital with an evident relish, that is sufficiently 
characteristic to be related here. The Archduke 
had accepted an invitation to shoot on the estate 
of a very rich Hungarian magnate who had always 
shown himself unfriendly to the Hebrews. A few 
days before that fixed upon for the entertainment 



114 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

Count F received the following telegram: 

"Archduke Louis Victor will have the honour to 

arrive at the station of D for the shooting to 

which Count F has been kind enough to in- 
vite him, on the at three o'clock in the after- 
noon. He will be accompanied by Count So-and- 
So, Baron So-and-So, Prince So-and-So, AND 
by Baron de Ilirsch." 

To this message a reply was immediately dis- 
patched which ran thus: "Count F will have 

the honour to await His Imperial Highness, the 

Archduke Louis Victor, at the station of D 

on the at three o'clock in the afternoon. He 

understands that His Imperial Highness will be 
accompanied by Count So-and-So, Baron So-and- 
So and Prince So-and-So. He requests him not 
to bring Baron de Hirsch." A third message, 
addressed to Count F , closed this correspond- 
ence. It was, briefly, ^'Archduke Louis Victor will 
not have the honour to shoot with Count F ." 

Francis Joseph was supposed to be extremely 
attached to his younger brother. This did not pre- 
vent his having the Archduke confined in one of 
his castles near Salzburg, under pretext that he 
was not quite right in his mind, which may have 



The Idiosyncrasies of the Hapsburgs 115 

been true to a certain extent, though the reason 
for this harsh measure was suspected of being an 
entirely different one, and to be connected with 
personal matters about which it is best perhaps not 
to speak, because they are not of a very savoury 
character. It is a curious thing, though, that the 
old Kmperor invariably resorted to the device of 
declaring mad the people who incurred his dis- 
pleasure. This was the case with Archduke John 
Salvador, who, under the name of John Orth, made 
himself so conspicuous some five and twenty years 
ago, and also with the unfortunate Crown Princess 
Louise of Saxony, who would never have come to 
grief in the disastrous way she did if she had found 
the protection to which she was entitled in her own 
family. And there were rumours going about in 
Vienna, before the tragic end of the Archduke 
Rudolph, that his father was meditating having 
him put, temporarily at least, under restraint, so 
as to prevent his attempting to divorce the Crown 
Princess Stephanie. That the Archduke Francis 
Ferdinand (who was later to fall at Sarajevo un- 
der an assassin's hand) and his younger brother, 
Ferdinand Charles, escaped the same fate was 
due entirely to their stepmother, the Archduchess 



Ii6 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

Maria Theresa, who boldly declared that she woidd 
stand up for them, and never allow them to be 
treated in that abominable way. Though a bully, 
the aged Francis Jose])h was at heart a coward, 
and he did not dare to hold his own against his 
sister-in-law, who, he knew, woidd not hesitate to 
assert her authority and declare publicly that she 
considered her stepsons just as sane as their Im- 
perial uncle. 

These stepsons, as I have already said, were 
warndy attached to her, and she well deserved their 
tenderness and their respect, for she had invariably 
tried to make Hfe easy for them. When the eldest 
of these yowng men married the Countess Chotek 
the ceremony was celebrated in the private chapel 
of the Bohemian castle of Reichstadt, the summer 
residence of Maria Theresa, who helped to dress 
the bride and herself adjusted the magnificent lace 
veil which slie had ])resentcd to her that same 
morning. She was of an accommodating and lib- 
eral frame of mind, this Portuguese Archduchess, 
who understood so well how to fight for her own. 

Iler youngest stepchild. Archduke Ferdinand 
Charles, had always been her favourite. He was 
the best looking of the family, and was very much 



The Idiosyncrasies of the Hapsburgs 117 

liked, not only on account of his handsome face, 
but for his great afrability, his utter absence of 
affectation, his generosity and kindness that always 
made him seek occasions of usefulness to others. 
lie was devoted to literature and had a large col- 
lection of well-selected books treating mostly of 
historical and scientific matters. He was the first 
Archduke to be met in the houses of men who had 
made for themselves a name among the learned 
ones of their country, and was more often to be 
found in their company than in that of the golden 
youth of Vienna. Being the youngest son, his 
tastes were not taken into account at Court, and 
no one troubled sufficiently about him to make any 
ill-natured reports concerning him to the Emperor. 
The latter, too, was sui)remely indifferent to this 
nephew, reserving all his attention for the sons of 
the Archduke Otto, in whom he saw his future 
successors, and whom, as such, he was having care- 
fully watched by those among his personal attend- 
ants and friends who cared for that sort of occupa- 
tion. 

Meanwhile Ferdinand Charles had met at the 
home of one of the professors at the Vienna Uni- 
versity where he was a frequent guest, a girl who 



ll<S St'crc'ls ol I )c'(lir()nc'(l Roy.illy 

('.iplivnlcd liiiM l>y llic cliniin of lu r mnimcrs ns well 
iis l)y licr rare iKJiiily. Ilcr iiniric was Hcrllia 
'rsclmlKT, ;m<l slic vvns llic (l;ui/4lil( r of a, fainoiis 
iimlliciiialiciari vvliosc rainc had .s|)iTa(l far hcyoiid 
llic liiiiils (>r liis unlive land. I*'(»r aboiil, llircc 
years Ihc Arclidukc paid liis addrcssrs lo licr and 
tried lo persimde her lo iiiairy hiiii in seerel, as hv. 
coidd hardly h()|>e l«> ohiain llie l^jiiperor's sane- 
lion to Iheir union. She ahsolulely refused to 
lower herseir lo what siie jiisliy Ihou^^hl, would he 
considered as mercenary, and hesides, she did nol. 
care lo run Ihe risk of havin/^' her marriage declared 
illegal, as woidd surely l)e Ihe ease if siic should 
fail lo rccci\'c Ihe Imperial conscuL 

II was Ihcn Ihal Ihe Archduchess Maria 'I'heresii 
inlerrered in favour of Ihe youn^' peo|)le. She 
look upon heiself Ihe lask of smoolhin/^" away the 
ohslacles Ihal slood in the way of Iheir union; she 
pleaded with l^'rancis Joseph to permit a mor- 
^analie mnrria^'e, and o})lainc(l his |)ermission only 
on eondilion that Ihe /\rchdukc should I'cnouncc his 
name, titles and raid<, :ind conseid to call himself 
in future plain P'crdinand liur/^', promisin/^- at the 
sajiie time ne\'er a«^ain to live in Austria or to show 
himself in Vienna,. 



'J lie Idiosyncrasies of the Hapsburgs 119 

in return for all lliis, the Krnjieror promised to 
allow Fcni'mmid Charles iin income, whieh, tljou/^h 
moderate, was (jiiite sijfTleicTJt for his re(iijirements. 
The Arehdiike was f)ut too ^lad to ohtain his lib- 
erty at tin's j)ri((.', and he settled in Munielj where 
he soon made himsc'lf Jiked an(J n!S|)e('ted on ae- 
count of tlu; dignity of his conduct, manners and 
general (Jcmeanour. Jt is needless to say that the 
Prince K(;gent Luit})old of iJavaria refused to 
open to him the dor)rs of the Munich Residerr/. 

His rri.'irri;i|»(: j)roved to he an extremely hapi)y 
oru*, and th(; daughter of IVofessor Tschuher 
shr)W(;d hi/nself (juite worthy of his ehoic'e. lln- 
fortunat<'ly fr)r hofh of thciri, the health of I^'erdi- 
nand ('hnrles, which liad never heen good, began 
to fail, and it soon became eviderjt that he had in- 
herited from his mr)ther the seeds of consurni)tiori. 
The best cure could not sto[) the insidious advance 
of th(; disease;, jind poor 1^'erdinand (!hjirles died 
in 1014, a f(;w wcfrks before tlie outbreak of tlie 
great war, after ;i, brief period of gr(;at h.'i,p[)in(;ss 
which would probably have continued, as he and 
his wife; had th(; sjime tastes and were cpiite suited 
to f)ne another. The Archduchess Maria Theresa 
came from Vienna to attend the death-bed of h(.'r 



120 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

stepson and helped to nurse him. After he had 
passed away she took his young widow home with 
her to the castle of Reichstadt, where she kept her 
for several months. 

Ferdinand Charles left two sons, and after the 
fall of the Emperor Charles there were some peo- 
ple in Austria who expressed a regret that they 
were such babies, because otherwise they might 
have been put forward as candidates for the 
Throne. They were Ilapsburgs, after all, and it 
would have meant the continuation of the old 
dynasty, and there was a chance that these young 
members might be free from the prejudices that 
had made this house so obnoxious to the people 
over whom it had ruled. But, of course, this was 
mere hearsay, and nothing at present warrants the 
assumption that the children of Ferdinand Burg 
and Bertha Tschuber will or may come to wear the 
diadem which their cousin forfeited a short time 
ago. 



Ill 

IMPERIAL MORGANATIC MARRIAGES 

One hundred years ago it would have been con- 
sidered quite impossible for an Archduke or Arch- 
duchess to marry anyone not belonging to a Royal 
or Imperial House, and the necessity for them to 
ally themselves only with Roman Catholics re- 
stricted them immensely in their choice. It was 
an understood thing that outside of the Bourbons, 
Bavarian Wittelsbachs and Ilapsburgs, no mem- 
ber of the Imperial House of Austria could look 
for a wife or husband. There were, it is true, sev- 
eral families belonging to the highest German aris- 
tocracy, called Reichs Unmittelbar, who might as- 
pire to the honour of mating with the descendants 
of Maria Theresa, but somehow this had not taken 
place, at least not in recent times, and it became a 
nine days' wonder in Vienna when the Archduke 
Frederick, nephew and heir of the immensely 
wealthy Archduke Albert, announced his intention 



122 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

of ninrryiT)^ the Princess Lsabelle of Croy, second 
(laiiglitcr of the Duke of thtit name. Of course, 
Iier quartcrings were unimpeachable and, as the 
Imperial traditions of the old German Empire 
were no longer given consideration, she was at lib- 
erty to ally herself with any Royal house. All the 
same, Vienna did not care for the idea, especially 
as the Princess Isabella's sister, Eugenic, was mar- 
ried to rrinee l^'.sterhazy, and it was felt that this 
eircumstanee might i)r()ve embarrassing for both 
these ladies. The Emperor, Fi-aneis Joseph, be- 
gan by refusing his consent and when at last he 
was induced to grant it, he tried to stipulate that 
it should be a morganatic marriage only. But this 
was more than the liaughty Duke of Croy could 
tolerate; so he rej)aire(l to Vienna, asked for an 
audience of the Emperor, and plainly told him 
ibat lie would never allow his daughter to wed the 
Archduke uidess she were awarded the rank that 
was due his wife and could take her place among 
the recognized members of the Imperial family. 
Francis .Joseph was far too great a stickler for 
eticpiettc arid the old traditions which for years 
immemorial had ruled the daily life of the inhabi- 
tants of the Vieilna Hofburg not to recognize the 




/'hotonni/'h, llndrnvno.l fr Vndcrwnod. N. Y. 

AlUlllDIIKK I'KKDI.ItlCK 



Imperial Morganatic Marriages 123 

fact that the Duke was right and that it would be 
impossible for him to find any reasonable pretext 
for opposing his nephew's wishes. So, after all, in 
spite of the busybodies who kept repeating that it 
was a great shame, the Princess Isabella became a 
full-fledged Archduchess, with all the honours at- 
tached to this exalted rank and position. She did 
not have a pleasant time in the beginning. The 
Viennese aristocracy did not treat her kindly, but 
she had wonderful powers of endurance and she 
contrived somehow to disarm the prejudice against 
her. This she did by becoming "more royalist than 
the King," to use a popular French saying, and 
by observing most rigidly all the rules of etiquette 
— more rigidly, in fact, than any other Austrian 
Princess. 

She was an ambitious woman and her one great 
grief during the first nineteen years of her mar- 
ried life was that Heaven refused to bless her with 
a son, whose birth would have made her position 
even more stable, by providing an heir to the im- 
mense estates of her husband's uncle, old Archduke 
Albert. She had six daughters before this much- 
longed-for boy made his appearance; in fact, she 
had almost given up hoping for him, and had set 



124 Secrets ot* Dethroned Royalty 

nil her jMubilions on hcv «4irls, >vlu)m slio tried to 
(.vslnblisli MS hrillinnlly jis possihU*. 'Vhc Mcsl one, 
INItirir C'risliiio (cnlled ni'icv hcv j):ilcMn:il aiinl, the 
Down^U^or of Spniii) >vms ;m txlrtMinly pretty ^irl, 
and Isnhelln b()[)t>(l to lunrry her to Archduke 
Vraiu'is b'erdinjind. niul to see her beeonio some 
day h'lupress of Austria. It stHMued at one time 
as though this wish would be gralilied. l)eeause the 
Arehduke tcu^k to visit iuL»" his eousius in their splen- 
did Palaee of Presburi;' in Iluni^ary. and she 
thought that the lovely laee oi' her dau«»hu>r was 
the attraetion. It may be imaL»ined therefore with 
what dismay she diseovered that the only reason 
for his frecpient ai)i)earanees at Pn^sburi;- was his 
atl'eetion for hcv Indy-in-wailiui^-, llie Countess 
. So[)hy C'holek, 

Isabella, for th(> tirsl time in her life, was guilty 
of ill manners. Wcv rai^e and disappointment 
drove her to aetions as brutal as they were inhu- 
man. The Countess Chotek was turned out oi' the 
Palace in Vresburi»- at a minute's notice, no time 
being- oiven her oven to pack her clothes or change 
her dress. She was literally turned into the street 
by the infuriated Archduchess, who did not hesi- 
tate to spread the most wicked calumnies ao-ainst 



Imperial Morganatic Marriages 125 

an inrio(;(;nl- girl wlio luid rloric \u.r no }iarrri. Of 
course, the result of her conduct was very diirercnt 
from what she had anticipatcrJ, hc(;ause it fur- 
nislicfi tlie Arcf)(hjko with tfic pretext he requirecJ 
in fjrdcr lo marry tfie lady wlio ha(i (;onf|ij(:jed Ijis 
[jeart, and, to Isabella's disgust, the ceremony took 
place a few months later, the J^^mpcror conferring 
at the same time the title of I'rinces.s of Ilohcn- 
herg on his nephew's morganatic wife. 

There was, however, one grain of consolation in 
this misfortune — for S(jch the mortified Arch- 
duchess considered it to })e. 'J'he (children who 
might eventually he horri to J*'rancis 1^'erdinand 
could n('V(;r inherit the Thi'one, and he; hiniself he- 
came, thanks to his marriage, almost an out(.'ast 
from the Imjjeri.'d family. 

She looked ahout for another suitor for her 
daughter, hut could not find one for the moment, 
the King of Spain heing tr)o young to he taken into 
account; her amf)ition was to reserve him for one 
of her younger girls. At last she hit upon the idea 
of seeking a suitr)r in one of those high-horn Ger- 
man famili(;s to which she herself belonged. This 
proved an (;asy task and very soon the official 
gazette of Vienna announced that, with the consent 



126 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

of the Emperor, the Archduchess Marie Cristine 
had become engaged to the hereditary Prince of 
Sahn-Salm. 

This was a briUiant match from a worldly point 
of view and, in a sense, it opened a new era to the 
Ilapsburg family. It also opened the eyes of the 
Viennese public to the fact that Arcliduclicsses 
might be wooed and won like other young ladies in 
society, and that they were not destined to enter a 
convent if they did not find a husband of equal 
rank. Besides, it encouraged these girls to break 
away from the traditions in which they had been 
brought up. It emancipated them in a certain 
sense; for, not long after the marriage of ^larie 
Cristine, the youngest daughter of the late Arch- 
duke Charles Ludwig and of the Archduchess 
JNIaria Theresa surprised her mother by declaring 
that she was in love with a young Prince of Liech- 
tenstein, and it was not many years before the 
third daughter of that same Archduchess Isabella 
announced her intention of becoming the wife of 
Prince Godfrey von Ilohenlohe, one of the least 
attractive but most intelligent men in Vienna. 

Of course, all these marriages brought the Haps- 
burgs nearer to common mortals than they had 



Imperial Morganatic Marriages 127 

ever been before; hut the eulmination of these 
"iriesalhanees," as the old Emperor persisted in 
calhng them, was when the daughters of the Arch- 
duke Charles Stephen selected their husbands. 

The Archduke Charles Stephen was a younger 
brother of the Archduke Frederick, who, not being 
as rich as he, was much more ambitious. He was 
the owner of a large estate in Galicia, where he 
used to spend a great part of the year, and where 
he had made himself popular, owing to his knowl- 
edge of the Polish language and his affectation of 
Polish sympathies. Those who knew him well de- 
clared that he was working all the time with a view 
to becoming one day King of Poland, in the event 
of a war between Austria and Russia, which, per- 
haps he was aware, could not be long delayed, and 
which was bound to bring about the independence 
of Poland. People in Vienna laughed at him in a 
mild sort of way and shrugged their shoulders 
when speaking about him; but they were not pre- 
pared for a thunder-bolt, and such was to them his 
announcement of the engagement of two of his 
daughters to two Polish noblemen. Prince Jerome 
Radziwill and Prince Olgerd Czartorysky. They 
were both nice young men, quite rich and prouder. 



128 Secrets of Di^dironui Royalty 

pirh.ips, of ilu'ir juislocr.Mtic birlh llinii ;my Arch- 
duke lijul ever lu'cn. /\ll kinds ol' rmiiom-s llcw 
nhout i*(\nMr(liii<^- \\wsc Iwo mjirria^'es, some of 
whic'li lUH'd nol hv rojx'.ilcd here, and wise dow- 
'AiXCVs shook thiMi* heads and (hclared Ihal all this 
Iiad coino abont on accounl of Ihr far too ^irat 
lihiM'ly Iho yoiilid'nl Archdnclu'sscs had been al- 
lowed. 

Their eonslernation increased considerahly wjjcn 
another thunder-holl IVoin the hliie came lo dis- 
tnrh their ((jnaniniity Ihe news Ilia I I he eldest 
dan«^]iler of Charles Stephen, Archduchess l^ilca- 
nora, had been wedded (inicily, hut wilh her ])a- 
rents' Tnll consent, to a siin])le naval oMicer, w^ith- 
ont any "handle" to his name, Ilerr von Kloss. 

Both the Archduke and Archduchess declared 
themselves deli«;hlcd wilh their daughter's choice; 
hut some of those husyhodies who are found in 
every royal household and who know everything- 
that lakes place Iheir, whispered in the ears of 
their friends that they had been compelled to •'ivc 
their consent to this une<jual and scandalous mar- 
ria«>"e, because the britlc had forestalled it by run- 
ning away with her future husband. She had been 
followed and caught, and the matter had been 



JrTi[)crial Morganatic Marriages 129 

hushed ii[>, so ih'dl no one coulfi positively affirm 
that it had really occurred; hut to those high- 
friindcd aristocrats wfif> v\i\((\ irj tfic Viennese 
rirawinrc-rof^ms it was the only exjjlanation of what 
wouhl f)therwise have heeri, in their eyes, a most 
heinous crime. As a matter of fact, not.ljjng of the 
kind had ever taken place, hut it suited certain 
people to set the rumour in circulation. 

The "family misfortunes" (for such they were 
called; oi' tlie Archduke C'harles Stephen and of 
his wife v/cvc discusscfi for a long time hy tfjc gos- 
sips of Vienna, and most prf>hahly would have 
heen rememfjcred longer tlian tliey actually were 
if the adventures of the fifth daughter oi' Arf;h- 
duke Frederick, the Archduchess isahella, had not 
^iven the world another and far more interesting 
suhjef;t oi' convcrsiiiiou. This youthfiil [>rincess 
had heen married fjy her energetic mother, when 
scarcely out oi' the schoolroom, tfj a I'rince of the 
Koyal House of Havaria, a son of the ]*rjnc-ess 
Cjisela, the eldest daughter of Kmperor Francis 
Joseph. He hail always home a douhtful reputa- 
tion, and nr)t many parents would have liked to 
confide a daugliier to his care; hut from a vvf>rldly 
pfjirjt of view he was one of the best matches in 



130 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

Europe — rich, young and handsome. JVIoreover, 
he seemed to be genuinely in love with his fiancee. 
He had always been a favourite with his grand- 
father, Francis Joseph, who was delighted at the 
engagement, presented the future bride with mag- 
nificent gifts, settled quite a handsome sum of 
money on her, and insisted on the wedding taking 
place at Schonbrunn, where it was solemnized with 
that exceeding ])omp so characteristic of the Aus- 
trian court. The Archduchess looked quite lovely 
under the magnificent lace veil that had formerly 
been the property of the Empress Elizabeth, and 
had been given by her daughter Gisela as a wed- 
ding present to her son's future wife. After the 
wedding breakfast, at which the old Emperor him- 
self presided, the newly married pair started for 
the castle of Laxenburg, which had been put at 
their disposal for the honeymoon. 

What happened there is difficult to relate, but 
at about four o'clock in the morning a dishevelled 
female knocked at the gates of the Vienna palace 
of the Archduke Frederick and insisted on being 
admitted. It was the Archduchess Isabella, who, 
throwing herself at her father's and mother's knees, 
implored them to take her back under their roof, 



Imperial Morganatic Marriages 131 

declaring that no human persuasion would induce 
her to return to her husband and live with him 
again after the short experience she had had and 
the knowledge of what existence by his side would 
mean for her. 

The consternation caused by this catastrophe 
was indescribable. Of course, the Emperor had to 
be advised of it and, for once, he showed genuine 
distress, preached resignation to his niece and 
soundly rated his grandson. But all his efforts 
and those of the Archduchess Isabella (who did 
not care to have her daughter returned to her like 
a bad penny) proved unavailing, because the 
young bride absolutely refused to listen to them, 
and declared that if her parents persisted in their 
refusal to take her back she would enter a convent. 
Nevertheless, after some time, a kind of reconcilia- 
tion was effected, thanks to the intervention of the 
Princess's father confessor, and she consented to 
accompany her husband to Munich. The experi- 
ment of living with him did not last long, however. 
At the end of a fortnight the Archduchess fled 
from her palace one morning by a back door and, 
quite alone and unattended, made her way to 
Vienna, where she immediately sought her aunt, 



132 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

the Archduchess Maria Theresa, to whom she re- 
lated the whole sad story of her married hfe. 

This step i)roved her salvation, for Maria 
Theresa was the strong member of the Hapsburg 
family. She took her niece's affairs into her own 
hands, went lo see Ihe Emperor, and induced him 
to consent to a demand addressed by the Arch- 
duchess Isabella to the Pope to have her marriage 
annulled. In view of the facts which were revealed 
to him, Francis Joseph could not do otherwise 
than communicate with the Bavarian Court, and 
the Regent Prince Luitpold finally gave his per- 
mission to a suit for divorce being started simul- 
taneously at the Vatican and before the civil courts 
of Bavaria. This ended in the annulment of this 
ill-fated marriage, and the young Archduchess was 
freed from the fetters that had bound her to a man 
who had never deserved her. But she was soon to 
find out that life at home was going to be anything 
but pleasant. Her position was abnormal and she 
felt it acutely — neither maid, wife nor widow, a 
sort of stray being whom no one wanted and for 
whom no one cared, alone with her half-broken 
heart, and deprived even of the possibility of seek- 
ing outside amusements that might have made her 



Imperial Morganatic Marriages 133 

forget, if only temporarily, the sad experience by 
which her young life had been blighted. 

At last she formed a great resolution: she en- 
tered a sisterhood of nurses where she went through 
the regular course of studies the institution de- 
manded and, at her own request, was known only 
by the name of Sister Irmgard. When the great 
war broke out she was one of the first who volun- 
teered to go to the front to attend the wounded 
and sick soldiers, with whom she at once became a 
general favourite. She made herself beloved by 
the whole army, and all wondered at the courage 
which led her to expose herself to all kinds of dan- 
ger, going so far as to bring in wounded men from 
the very firing line. She did not spare herself, and 
whilst toiling for the relief of the terrible suffering 
that confronted her at every stej) and turn she 
took, she met a man who was destined to play an 
important part in her life — indeed, to transform it 
entirely. This was a dfx;tor, Professor Albrecht, 
one of the most famous surgeons in Austria, who 
was so struck by the fortitude shown by the youthful 
Archduchess that, for once, he forgot all his preju- 
dices against the Hapsburgs, whom he had thor- 
oughly despised until he met Isabella. They soon 



134 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

became friends aiul at last the day came when this 
daughter of an Imperial House asked herself 
whether she would not feel happier with this grey- 
liaired man, whose moral worth she had learned to 
appreciate, tlian amidst the splendours of the 
Vienna Ilofburg, and when once she had made up 
her mind on that point she did not hesitate to let 
the Professor know. 

They became privately engaged; but the great 
diliiculty was how to acquaint the Archihichess's 
family of her decision to give up all the privileges 
of her exalted rank and marry a man who had 
nothing to reconuncnd him beyond his spotless rep- 
utation and the great name he had made for him- 
self in the world of science. 

. Nevertheless, she summoned courage to broach 
the subject to her father, and, to her surprise, the 
Arcliduke Frederick diil not object to her trying 
to seek happiness where she thought it was to be 
found. Perhaps at heart he was sorry for having 
insisted on her sacrificing herself, as she had pre- 
viously done, for ambitious aims and the satisfac- 
tion of her family. But when he submitted the 
matter to the Emperor he found that the latter 
would not hear of such a thing as his niece "dis- 



Imperial Morganatic Marriages 135 

gracing herself forever," as he expressed it, by- 
allying herself with a man who could not even 
boast of a 'Von" to his name. 

The Archdiichess had to relinquish hope. Hap- 
pily it was not for long. The selfish old man who 
stood in the way of her happiness passed away, 
and a few months later his Empire collapsed like a 
house of cards. Isabella ceased to be an Austrian 
Archduchess, and was able to do what she liked 
with her future life. It is to be hoped, for her 
sake, that it will be a hax>py one, by the side of the 
honest man to whom rumour says that she has 
plighted her troth — happier at least than the exist- 
ence she had to endure when she was Her Imperial 
and Royal Highness, the Princess George of Ba- 
varia, Archduchess of Austria, and the most miser- 
able creature on this earth. 



IV 



rilK C1U>WN riMNCKSS STKIMIAMK 

AMI HKH nvriurrKU 

ViF.NNA h:ul ncvir caved (ov Iho Arohiluohoss 
Stophnnio, the iint\Mtiin:itc> »,'i>nsi>rt o[' \\\c Crown 
Vv'uwc KiuK>lph o[' Austria. Tlio hitler h:ul al- 
ways luHMi a t'avourltc of [\\c piiMic'. aiul his witV 
>vas aoi'iisinl oi' haviui;' hron imhroctly the (.'ausc i>t' 
his (loath by haviiiii* taiUul \o make him happy in 
his homo htV. The aooiisation >vas not ontiroly fair. 
t*or it is ilonhtt'ul whether any wiMuan in the wi>rUl 
eonUl have bronght contentment to the restless soul 
of Uuilolph or ameliorateil the boredom o( the dull 
existenee his p^nsiticMi eomj^elled him to lead. He 
was an exeeedingiy clever man. and he had, since 
his b(\vluHHl. snfVered more i>r less fri>m that "iccit 
xccJi" of which Heine wrote so c^Ku|iiently. He was 
meant for something better than a IJoyal Prince 
of the House of Austria, anil the sad part was that 
ho was (piitc aware of it. His mysterious and aw- 
ful onil, the real eircumstances o( which have never 




/^ 



I'liotoi/ral'li, llmlerwoo'l fr IJndervuooil. N. Y. 

I'KINCKHM HTKPIIA.MK UV V.i.H.UU 



Princess Stephanie and Daughter 137 

been entirely explained, was but the outcome of 
years of restraint which he had exercised over his 
passions, until at last they broke loose and brought 
him to destruction, though whether it was self- 
inflicted or the deed of another has remained a 
secret for most people. 

The Crown Prince's marriage was entirely ar- 
ranged by Emperor Francis Joseph and old King 
Leopold of the Belgians. He was hardly consulted 
about it, and he agreed to it out of indolence and 
weariness. He was deeply in love at the time with 
a lady gifted with great beauty and uncommon 
intelligence, whom circumstances would never have 
allowed him to marry, even if she had not already 
possessed a husband, and this fact weighed heavily 
upon his mind and made him acquiesce in silence 
to his father's wishes. He knew that his position 
as heir to the Austrian Throne made it incumbent 
upon him to marry so as to provide a future heir, 
and he did not look further than that. The 
thought that marriage might mean for him the 
companionship and sympathy of a woman capable 
of entering into his pursuits, and helping him in 
the difficulties of his path through life, never en- 
tered his mind, and perhaps at heart he was rather 



138 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

pleased than otherwise with the futihty and nar- 
row-mindedness of the girl he was to raise to the 
j)osition of Crown Princess of Austria. lie hoped 
that at least she would not interfere with him hut 
would allow him to live his own independent life. 

In this, however, the Archduke was mistaken. 
Stephanie certainly was not clever, hut this was 
precisely what made her dangerous to her hushand 
as well as to others. She developed a spirit of 
jealousy which hrought ahout very shortly an 
estrangement, and she wearied him with perpetual 
scenes, as useless as they were ill-timed and ill- 
placed. 

I shall not enter here into the details of the 
Crown Prince's romance with Mary Vetsera. So 
much has hecn written ahout it that anything I 
might say would he only tedious repetition. It 
seems pretty certain to mc, however, judging from 
the numerous versions of the tragic adventure 
which have heen allowed to reach us, that Rudolph 
fell a victim to an intrigue in which politics un- 
doubtedly played a part. INIary Vetsera, before 
she became the Archduke's mistress, had been upon 
terms of great intimacy with one of the leading 
Hungarian statesmen of the time, and it is quite 



Princess Stephanie and Daughter 139 

possible that he had, in a certain sense, forced her, 
so to say, into the arms of the Crown Prince, in 
the hope that through her influence the latter 
might be induced to entertain certain views as to 
the entire independence of Hungary from Aus- 
trian control. On the other hand, the girl was not 
clever or bright enough to be able to play this dan- 
gerous game without betraying herself in some 
way. This may have aroused Rudolph's sus- 
picions, and it is quite possible that some people, 
afraid of being compromised, decided to remove 
him from the political scene. But, as I said be- 
fore, all this is mere supposition, and the facts may 
have been entirely different. 

It has been insinuated that his own wife Ste- 
phanie was fully aware of the conspiracy that was 
being hatched against the life of the Crown Prince. 
There is, however, no proof at all that such was 
the case. Stephanie had certainly no reason for 
wishing her husband's death. She was an ambi- 
tious creature in her way, and though she may not 
have cared for him, she was extremely attached to 
her position as future Empress, and inordinately 
proud of it. She had been heard to say that she 
did not mind whether the Archduke was in love 



140 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

with her or not, but that she would never do any- 
thing that woidd bring her into trouble or inter- 
fere with her one day wearing the Crown dia- 
monds. Therefore, Rudolph's end must have been 
a terrible shock to her. 

Stephanie could make herself eminently dis- 
agreeable to pc()])le whom slie did not like, and 
nuiny ladies in Vienna society were made to feel 
tliis. They were, of c(jurse, the first to rejoice at 
her downfall, and the Princess discovered very 
shortly after she became a widow that her position 
was going to be anything but pleasant. According 
to the strict etiquette prevailing at the Hofburg, 
she was debarred as a widow fi-om taking any part 
in Court festivities and she lost precedence as sec- 
ond lady in the land. This was gall and wormwood 
to her, and very soon she left Vienna, imder pre- 
text that the climate did not agree with her health, 
and she took to spending her time in some south- 
ern resort such as Miramar or Abbazia on the Gulf 
of Quarnero, where at that time a colony of gay 
people assembled for the winter months. She did 
not wear her widow's weeds one day longer than 
the time prescribed by etiquette, and she developed 
a wonderful taste in dress, with which she had never 



Princess Stephanie and Daughter 141 

been credited in the past. With the assistance of a 
clever hairdresser and corset-maker many physical 
defects were concealed, and no one who had seen 
her on her wedding day — a plump, shapeless, 
clumsy girl with a red nose and freckled face, 
standing before the altar beside her tall and hand- 
some bridegroom — could possibly recognise as the 
same being this elegant, slender, lovely woman, 
with a faultless figure and complexion and a mass 
of fair hair most artistically arranged on the top 
of her head. She liked society and her manner be- 
came far more gracious than when she lived in 
Vienna. In the early years of her widowhood she 
made for herself friends, and became the life and 
soul of a small group of ultra-smart peoj^le whose 
companionship was far more pleasant to her than 
that of the sedate dowagers whose word was law in 
Vienna. 

The Empress Elizabeth had never been partial 
to her daughter-in-law, and this hostility furnished 
the latter with the pretext she required for absent- 
ing herself from the Austrian capital. It is true, 
the Empress herself seldom lived there except in 
spirit, but her Mistress of the Robes was there to 
enforce any irksome etiquette upon Stephanie. 



142 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

The one thing that might have drawn the latter 
back to her old apartments in the Hofburg was 
her only child, the baby Archdnchess Elizabeth, 
whom she was not permitted at first to take ont of 
Austria, which she would have liked very much tt) 
do. 

A compromise was at last effected in regard to 
the little girl. The fact that no one wanted the 
child rendered this quite easy. The Empress had 
never shown her any affection, and Francis Joseph 
was so absorbed in his own pursuits that he did not 
wish to be saddled with the care of his son's orphan. 
After some negotiations Stephanie was allowed to 
take her to Abbazia and to keep her under her 
control, except w^ien she elected to go abroad ; then 
the child was to be sent back to Vienna to remain 
mider her grandfather's roof until her mother's 
return. 

This arrangement lasted for some time, and then 
rumours reached Francis Joseph's ears that his 
daughter-in-law was enjoying herself rather too 
much when away from his supervision. The name 
of a young man belonging to the Hungarian aris- 
tocracy was mentioned in connection with her own 
and people began to say that the Emperor should 



Princess Stephanie and Daughter 143 

not tolerate such a thing, nor allow his son's widow 
to visit all the fashionable watering places in Aus- 
tria accompanied by a cortege of friends, some of 
whom were not of sufficient rank to be presented at 
Court. Stephanie was fast becoming an embarras- 
sing p'TSon in the Hapsburg family, and none felt 
this .nore than her father-in-law. 

The Empress had died before this, else she 
might have found some solution of the difficulty, 
but there was another person whose opinion the 
Emperor greatly valued, namely, Catherine 
Schratt, and she it was who finally suggested a 
way out of the predicament. Francis Joseph 
would never have thought of the plan, but when 
Catherine explained to him her reasons for advis- 
ing him to adopt it, he was fain to own that it of- 
fered the best means of putting an end to gossip 
concerning the Princess and her partiality for the 
Hungarian nobleman who had constituted himself 
her cavaliere servante, as they say in Italy. What 
Catherine Schratt proposed was that Stephanie 
should be married to the young man whose atten- 
tions had given rise to the scandal. Such a union 
would have the advantage of putting Stephanie 
out of the Imperial family in a way which she could 



144 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

not resent, and at the same time would do away 
with any insistence on her part to retain possession 
of her daughter, whose position as an Archduchess 
and the grand-daughter of the reigning Sovereign 
would not permit of her being brought up in the 
home of one of the latter's subjects. 

Francis Joseph, when he so desired, could as- 
sume quite a charming and paternal manner; he 
frequently did so when talking with people whom 
it was to his interest to conciliate. He sent for 
Count Elemer Lonyay (such was the name of the 
gentleman to whom he wished to offer the hand of 
his daughter-in-law) and told him that rumours 
had reached him that he was in love with the 
widowed Crown Princess, also that his affection 
was reciprocated. He said that far from offering 
any opposition he would be glad to do all he could 
to further the happiness of one who was dear to 
him and who had suffered much during her mar- 
ried life. He therefore wished the Count to con- 
vey to the Archduchess his full consent to her be- 
coming his wife, as well as his best wishes. 

Lonyay was staggered and could not guess to 
what kind fairy he owed this unexpected piece of 
good luck; but he could only thank the Sovereign 



Princess Stephanie and Daughter 145 

and start immediately for Abbazia, where Ste- 
phanie was stopping at the time, to acquaint her 
with the sudden happiness that had befallen them 
both. There were those who were wicked enough 
to say that the Archduchess was not quite so grate- 
ful to the Emperor as she ought to have been, but, 
grateful or not, she had to submit to this seconu 
marriage arranged for her, and Francis Joseph, 
who among his many faults did not include that of 
meanness, went so far in his generosity as to pre- 
sent Stephanie with superb jewels and a magnifi- 
cent trousseau, quite equal in splendour to that 
which the Archduchesses of the Imperial House of 
Hapsburg generally received from him on their 
marriages. He even interposed between his 
daughter-in-law and her father, who was quite in- 
censed at her audacity in wishing to wed a simple 
Count and so renounce her position as the widow 
of an heir apparent to one of the greatest mon- 
archies in Europe. His interference smoothed 
matters to a considerable extent and at least pre- 
vented old Leopold from publicly denoimcing the 
Princess. Lastly, as a crowning proof of his re- 
gard for Stephanie, the Emperor allowed the mar- 
riage to take place in the chapel of the Palace of 



146 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

Mirabiir, which he put at her disposal for the occa- 
sion. After the rings had been exchanged and the 
words spoken whicli transformed the former 
widowed Crown Princess into the Countess Lon- 
yay, the Imj)erial standard that had been flying 
from the towers of Miraniar was lowered, in token 
that she was no longer a Hapsburg. Catherine 
Schratt had advised wisely and Stephanie's exit 
from her first husband's family was at last a fait 
accompli. 



THE STORY OF THE ARCHDUCHESS 
ELIZABETH 

After the Crown Princess Stephanie's mar- 
riage, her daughter, who had already reached the 
age of seventeen years, was given a separate estab- 
hshment and the lady-in-waiting who was put in 
charge of it had to report every week to the Em- 
peror the sayings and doings of her young charge. 
The girl was devoted to her mother and would 
dearly have liked to remain with her instead of 
living in the Vienna Ilofburg. But of course she 
had no choice in the matter, but was given to under- 
stand that the less she had to do in future with the 
Countess Lonyay the better it would be for her 
and for her prospects of prosperity in the world. 
The old Emperor, who up to this time had re- 
garded this grand-daughter with complete indif- 
ference, suddenly developed a great affection for 
her and had her with him in Schonbrunn a good 
deal. She was an extremely pretty creature, suffi- 
147 



148 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

ciently intelligent to succeed in hiding from the 
eyes of the general public the defects of an educa- 
tion which had been extremely neglected, if we are 
to believe what we are told in a volume of remi- 
niscences written three or four years ago by the 
girl's English governess. This governess must 
have been a singularly modest person, for anyone 
possessed of the least degree of vanity would never 
had reproduced in a book the letters of the Arch- 
duchess, with their numerous grammatical errors, 
or at least would have corrected them before doing 
so. 

Spelling apart, however, Elizabeth at eighteen 
years old was an attractive little person, and it is 
not surprising that her grandfather grew fond of 
her. She had not been allowed to go anywhere 
before her mother's marriage, as it had been 
thought that the chaperonage of Princess Ste- 
phanie was not altogether what was required in 
introducing her daughter to Austrian society. But 
after the Countess Lonyay had taken up her resi- 
dence in Budapest, the Emperor bethought him- 
self that his granddaughter had reached an age 
when she ought to see something of the world, and 
he accordingly gave a number of dances for her in 



The Story of Archduchess Elizabeth 149 

the private apartments of the Vienna Hofburg. 
Elizabeth created a great sensation at the first of 
these festivities. Her whole appearance was ex- 
tremely pleasing and her graceful dancing was 
much admired, whilst the perfection of her man- 
ners disposed in her favour even the uncharitable 
dowagers whose word was law in Vienna. Francis 
Joseph was delighted with her success and quite 
satisfied with the modest way in which she accepted 
it. It was noticed everywhere that the aged Sov- 
ereign had not for a long time appeared so pleased 
with anyone as he seemed to be with pretty Eliza- 
beth. 

Of course, there were many speculations as to 
whom she would marry. The King of Spain was 
mentioned as a possible suitor, but he was much 
younger than she, so it was evident that this idea 
had been started by people who knew nothing 
about these young people whom they wished to see 
united in matrimony. Busybodies, therefore, had 
to turn their attention to all the marriageable 
Bourbon and Bavarian Princes still in existence, 
as well as those amongst the Archdukes who were 
not too nearly related to the young lady whose 
future fate seemed to interest them so much. 



150 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

During tliat wliole winter of 1900-1901, the 
Ardi(]iielics,s ]^ilizii})ctli was ])rcsei)t nt the hulls 
which were given in tlie Ilofburg, and was also 
allowed to attend the several festivities held in 
her honour at the houses of a few members of the 
Austrian aristocracy, such as I'rince and Princess 
Schwarzenberg, Prince and Princess Montenuovo, 
etc. She was very fond of dancing; indeed it was 
almost the only thing of which she was fond, and 
being an Archduchess she was allowed to choose 
the young men whom she wished for her partners. 
Among these was Prince Otto Windisch Graetz, 
a captain in the Imperial Guard, and a younger 
son of the ilhistrious family of that name. 

There was a saying in Vienna that the Ahnighty, 
when he decided to poi)ulate the earth, created 
men, women and Windisch Graetzes; which meant 
that the members of that noble race were absolutely 
different from the rest of mankind. This was lit- 
erally true, for it woidd have been hard to find 
in anyone else such a comj)lcte lack of brains as 
every Windisch Graetz, man or woman, exhibited. 
They were not only stupid, but, what was worse, 
they believed themselves far above the rest of the 
world in the matter of intelligence and, conse- 



The Story of Archduchess Elizabeth 151 

qucntly, they had a moral code of their own, the 
principal article of which was that everyone should 
bow down l)efore their perfection and worship at 
their shrine. Even among the Austrian aristoc- 
racy, where clever j)eople arc few and far between, 
they were considered as being possessed of a most 
limited intellect, which explains the j) rover!) I have 
just quoted, but, on the other hand, they were so 
very well connected, they held so high a social posi- 
tion that people simply shrugged their shoulders 
and smiled when some startling piece of imbecility 
on their part justified the truth of the saying that 
God had made them entirely different from other 
mortals. They were bigoted, too, and quite under 
the domination of their father confessors. 

I remember an amusing story in regard to this, 
of which the heroine was one of the Windisch 
Graetz Princesses, now an aged and most respect- 
able dowager. In her youth, some fifty years ago, 
she was a great beauty and immensely admired, 
but at the same time she was considered so dull that 
hardly any man cared to run the risk of dancing 
with her and })eing bored by her lack of conversa- 
tion. One day a young University graduate made 
a bet that he would succ(;cd in making her talk, a 



152 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

feat which was considered impossible. On the ap- 
pointed evening he and his comrades attended a 
ball at which the young Princess was also present. 
Our hero immediately engaged her for a quadrille 
and, to the surprise of those who were watching 
them both, she talked with the greatest liveliness 
to her partner, and indeed became quite excited 
during her conversation with him, which continued 
long after their dance had come to an end. When 
at last he left her he was at once surrounded by his 
friends and asked to explain how he had managed 
to anmiate that statue. 

"It was a simple matter," he replied. "I told 
her all manner of horrible stories concerning the 
Pope. She will never look at me again ; but in the 
.meantime she talked more than she ever did before 
or will probably ever do in future." It may be 
imagined what a burst of laughter greeted this 
frank avowal on the part of the young man. 

At the time I am writing about the most impor- 
tant personage of the Windisch Graetz family was 
the Princess Alexandrine, an old maid, who, on 
account of her caustic tongue and complete lack of 
charity, had won for herself a unique place in 
Viennese society. With her absence of brain was 



The Story of Archduchess Elizabeth 153 

combined gixat malice, and many a couple who, 
thanks to her machinations came to grief in their 
conjugal life, can testify to her activity in meddling 
with what did not concern her. At the same time, 
she was ambitious; so when she was told that the 
Archduchess Elizabeth had been dancing more 
than she was supposed to do with Prince Otto 
Windisch Graetz, she immediately conceived the 
idea of trying to add to the glory of her race by 
doing her best to arrange a marriage between this 
cousin and the granddaughter of the Emperor. 

For a wonder she was wise enough not to speak 
about it abroad, but began to instil into the mind 
of her relative that it was worth his while to try to 
win this prize in the matrimonial market of Eu- 
rope. Otto, to tell the truth, was not in the least 
attracted by the young Archduchess. But he was 
the younger son of a younger son, and he had ac- 
cumulated a considerable amount of debt which 
would have to be paid in some way, for the revela- 
tion of these debts would probably mean for him 
resignation from his regiment and he would end his 
days in one of his father's castles in Styria — a 
prospect far from pleasant. Elizabeth would re- 
ceive an enormous dowry ; besides, the idea of being 



154 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

the gTandson of the reigning Sovereign was one 
to api^eal to a Windiseh Graetz even more than to 
any other young aristoerat in Austria. Otto felt 
thankful to his eonsin for having opened his eyes 
to the possibility of improving his soeial and finan- 
cial prospects, and, forgetting the young girl with 
whom he had believed himself to be in love, he set 
himself to win the heart of the youthful Arch- 
duchess, whose sympathy for him Irnd not escaped 
the eyes of the most watchful member of his own 
family. Elizabetli had already fallen in love with 
Otto's handsome face. She knew, however, that he 
would never have sufficient courage to present him- 
self as a suitor for her hand. She, therefore, took 
the bull by the horns and boldly appealed to her 
grandfather, asking him to come to her help and 
to permit her to become the wife of the ne'er-do- 
well guardsman whose good looks and well- 
groomed appearance had captured her youthful 
imagination. 

For a wonder, the Emperor did not raise any 
objection. He had grown to love very dearly this 
grandchild of his, who was all that was left to him 
by a son whose tragic death had smitten his selfish 
old soul with a vague feeling of remorse. So he 



The Story of Archduchess Elizabeth 155 

took her in his arms and promised her that she 
should not be thwarted in her affection, and that 
he would see what he could do for her. 

The next day the Sovereign sent for Prince 
Ernest Windisch Graetz, Otto's father, and, to the 
latter's intense surprise, informed him of Eliza- 
beth's choice, adding that he wished her marriage 
to take place as soon as possible. Otto was to leave 
the army and establish himself in some country 
estate which would be bought for him with the 
Princess's dowry. Otto's debts, if he should have 
any (a fact about which the Emperor did not seem 
to have much doubt), were to be paid by Francis 
Joseph, so that the young people could begin life 
with a "clean slate," and the Windisch Graetz fam- 
ily were to receive the title of Serene Highness 
which, up to that time, had been granted them 
only out of courtesy. 

Prince Ernest felt almost faint with joy whilst 
hstening to this speech, and he could hardly find 
words in which to express his gratitude to the Mon- 
arch. His only regret was the necessity of keeping 
silence about this wonderful piece of luck that had 
befallen him and his family, until all the necessary 
arrangements connected with financial and other 



156 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

questions had been settled to everybody's satisfac- 
tion; so his excitement was intense during the 
weeks that elapsed until things had been arranged 
and the Emperor had officially announced his 
granddaughter's engagement to the brilliant but 
simple-minded officer who had won her with such 
facility. 

The marriage took place on the 23rd of Jan- 
uary, in Vienna, and was solemnized with great 
pomp in the private chapel of the Hofburg. The 
Archduchess received an immense dowry and some 
of the jewels of the late Empress Elizabeth, to 
which her grandfather added gifts of considerable 
value, also a trousseau, the magnificence of which 
had never yet been seen in Vienna. For a time 
everything seemed to go smoothly with the newly 
married couple, and then trouble began; trouble 
for which the Windisch Graetz family was as much 
to blame as Prince Otto himself. 

The latter had never understood his young wife, 
nor had he taken the trouble to try to do so. He 
had seen nothing in her beyond her exalted rank 
and her great fortune. The latter he proceeded at 
once to annex, and during the first month fol- 
lowing his marriage he persuaded his wife to give 



The Story of Archduchess Ehzabeth 157 

power of attorney for the management of her es- 
tates and money to the steward and financial ad- 
viser of the Windisch Graetz family, who, he knew 
very well, would always consider his interests be- 
fore those of the Archduchess. The latter was of 
an impetuous character, and it was not long before 
she realised that in marrying the young man with 
whom she had fancied herself so much in love she 
had been most foolish. A beautiful estate with a 
splendid mediaeval castle had been bought for her, 
but Otto did not care for the country and was most 
of the time away, leaving his young wife and chil- 
dren alone. 

The Archduchess was not one to brook neglect 
and she retaliated by trying in her turn to seek dis- 
traction in travelling and other pleasures. But 
what was her surprise when she was informed that 
there was no money to indulge in even simple 
amusements. Prince Otto had gambled and lost 
most of her fortune which he had squandered right 
and left with princely disregard as to whom it be- 
longed, and the day came when even the personal 
bills of the Archduchess could not be settled be- 
cause her husband had appropriated so much of 
her money. 



158 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

Elizabeth complained to the Emperor and he 
intervened. He began by taking into his own 
hands the administration of what was left of his 
granddaughter's fortune, and he arranged mat- 
ters so that she could spend part of each year in 
Vienna, where she lived more or less under his care. 
Of course, all the Windisch Graetz family rose up 
in arms and, instead of disassociating themselves 
from Otto, declared that it was entirely his wife's 
fault that things had gone wrong with them both 
and that Elizabeth's dressmaker's bills had had 
more to do with the jfinancial troubles of the young 
couple than the vast sums which the husband had 
gambled away or distributed to ladies who con- 
trolled his affections more than his wife had ever 
done. 

So long as old Francis Joseph lived, the position 
of his granddaughter was more or less tolerable, 
because, although Otto secretly annoyed her and 
attempted to deprive her of the guardianship of 
her childi-en, he did not dare to attack her openly; 
the more so that he was hoping that after the Em- 
peror's death he would be able to get possession of 
at least a portion of the money it was known would 
be left to the Archduchess. But the latter had 



The Story of Archduchess Elizabeth 159 

grown wiser and when her grandfather passed 
away she took care to seek the protection of his 
successor and of the Empress Zita; also to get her 
inheritance settled strictly upon herself and put 
under the control of trustees over whom the Win- 
disch Graetz family could not exert any influence. 
Then came the fall of the Hapsburg dynasty. 
With a meanness worthy of the shallow, ungrate- 
ful character of his whole family, Prince Otto im- 
mediately made an effort to become master of at 
least a considerable portion of his wife's fortune, 
under pretext of managing it in the interests 
of his children. In order to do so he did not hesi- 
tate (now that he had as adversary only a lonely 
woman deprived of defenders) to accuse her of 
immorality, so as to obtain from the civil courts an 
order transferring to him the custody of his sons 
and little daughter, whilst compelling Elizabeth to 
pay a considerable sum for their maintenance. It 
did not matter to him that by so doing he was giv- 
ing rise to an unprecedented scandal, the conse- 
quences of which might harm those very children 
whose welfare he pretended to have at heart. All 
he wanted was money, and he set himself to ob- 
tain it with the imbecility which was the only thing 



i6o Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

he had inherited from those ancestors of whom he 
professed to be so proud. It is to be hoped that 
the former Archduchess will succeed in proving 
her entire innocence of the atrocious and lying 
charges her miserable husband has launched against 
her, and that she will win the independence and 
liberty which, from the very first day of their mar- 
riage, he always denied her. She made a sad and 
terrible mistake in choosing the companion of her 
life, but perhaps there are still judges in Vienna 
who will forget that she was a Hapsburg and re- 
member that he is a Windisch Graetz. 



VI 

THE STORY OF THE EMPRESS ZITA 

It is a curious fact that almost none of the wives 
of the Austrian Sovereigns led a happy life, in 
spite of the exalted positions they occupied. The 
young Empress Zita was no exception to this rule ; 
in fact, on her seems to have descended all the ill 
luck of the IIai)sburgs as well as of the Bourbons, 
to whom she was related on her father's side — the 
late Duke Robert of Parma. When she became 
engaged everyone envied her because she was sup- 
posed to be making the best match in Europe, in 
spite of the fact that her future husband was still 
a long way from the Throne. But the heir pre- 
sumptive had married beneath his rank and his 
children could not inherit his Crown. Charles of 
Hapsburg was a good-lfX)king man and was hon- 
est and true, which was more than could be said of 
most of the men of his family. He was very much 
in love with the young girl whom he was to lead to 

i6i 



i62 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

the altar, and she, when she accepted his offer of 
marriage, could not foresee all the misfortunes 
which were to befall her, nor the catastrophe which 
was to snatch away from her the Imperial diadem 
after she had worn it for so short a time. 

Zita of Bourbon was a charming creature and 
she had been carefully brought up by a fond 
mother, who had trained her with love and gentle- 
ness, but at the same time firmness. She was very 
proud of the French blood which ran in her veins 
and of her close relationship to the late Count of 
Chambord, the last male descendant of Louis 
XIV. When she became engaged to the Arch- 
duke Charles she sent photographs to her friends 
signed "Zita de Bourbon, Princess de Parme," 
which action met with the disapproval of the Em- 
peror Francis Joseph and caused him to write to 
the Princess's mother reproving her for her daugh- 
ter's indiscretion. Zita, as he told her, was going 
to become an Austrian Archduchess and, in his 
opinion, she ought to have used the German lan- 
guage in signing her name. The widowed Duchess 
of Parma, who, like everybody else in Austria, 
stood in awe of the Emperor, showed his letter to 
Zita, but the latter, instead of accepting the re- 




Photof/ral-h, I 'uilerwooJ & Underwood. N. Y. 

Ex-KmI'KKOK ( JIAKI.KS FrA.NCJK .JoSH'H AM) Kx IVMl'KKSS ZriA OK AU.STKIA 



The Story of the Empress Zita 163 

proof, added to her iniquity by writing herself to 
the Emperor to explain her conduct, and to tell 
him that so long as she was unmarried she would 
consider herself a Bourbon Princess, and the Bour- 
bons did not use any other language than their 
mother tongue in their communications with their 
friends. 

This independence of character was of course 
not calculated to win for Zita of Parma the affec- 
tion of her new family. The old Emperor, never- 
theless, made much of her, because he wanted to 
show by the attentions he pressed upon her and the 
presents with which he loaded her, the difference 
that existed in his mind between her and the 
Countess Chotek, whom his heir, Francis Ferdi- 
nand, had insisted upon marrying. But his par- 
tiality for this new niece did not last long, and in 
spite of the reserve which she showed and the mod- 
esty with which she continually effaced herself in 
the presence of the other Archduchesses, he criti- 
cised her severely, especially after the war broke 
out, because she had the courage to proclaim her 
French sympathies and to express her indignation 
at the unwarranted attack against Serbia with 
which Austria inaugurated the long struggle of 



164 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

whic'li (tli()ii<4li slio knew it not at the time) she 
was to becoinc one of the priiieij)al vietims. 

This war broke Zita's heart tlie first day it be- 
gan. She eoiild not forget that she had Freneh 
bhx)d in her veins, that licr great-grandfather had 
been the hist legitimate King of France. The 
(^iieen of the lUlgiaiis was also her first cousin and 
her affections and Ihoughts were with those against 
whom her husband wns fighting. The young girl 
(she was hardly more than that) was obliged to 
witness in silence the most outrageous violation of 
the laws of right and wrong, and to smile through 
it all. Can one wonder if an immense feeling of 
revolt swei)t over her when she realised her own 
helplessness to put an end to this tempest into 
which Austria had been drawn, through her blind 
submission to the yoke of Prussia and to the leader- 
ship of William II? 

Whilst she was suffering so intensely, intrigues 
without number surrounded her. The German 
l)arty in Vienna — and ])articularly in tlie Ilofburg 
— knew very well that if by any chance old Francis 
Joseph should die before peace had been signed, 
the first act of his successor would be an attempt 
to put an end to the conflict that had already 



The Story of the Empress Zita 165 

brought about so much misery and caused the 
death of so many brave men. And it knew also 
that the moving si)irit in this appeal for peace 
would })e the new Empress. 

It was at this juncture that an attempt was 
made to discredit her as a wife and as a mother. 
The name of one of her mother's cl»amberlains, a 
Frencliman by birth, was mentioned in connection 
with her own ; and it was whispered in the old Em- 
peror's ear that the Archduchess was disgracing 
herself by the affection she exhibited for tliis young 
man wlio was, perhaps, her only intimate friend 
and allowed to see her wherever he liked. 

It is likely that if Francis Joseph liad been in 
full possession of liis faculties, the Princess would 
have had to pay dearly for these so-called indiscre- 
tions, but he was already tottering towards the 
grave and his mind could no longer grasp things 
in the old way. lie died at last and, to the discom- 
fiture of her numerous enemies, Zita of Bourbon 
became Empress of Austria and Queen of Hun- 
gary. 

The Kaiser, who was well aware that she had no 
friendly feeling for him, imagined that his personal 
influence could win her back to his side. He, ac- 



i66 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

cordingly, repaired to Vienna, contrary to the tra- 
ditional etiquette which re(iiiire(l a sovereign to 
await the first visit of a new monarch, and he ap- 
])eared at the Ilofburg one winter morning. He 
was, of course, received with all the honours to 
which he was entitled, and found the young Em- 
press awaiting him at the top of the grand stair- 
case. 

He remained only one day in the Austrian capi- 
tal, during which he tried to make himself agree- 
able to Zita and, at the same time, to convey to her 
his determination to insist upon Kmperor Charles 
continuing tlie policy inaugurated by his late uncle. 
The new Empress did not reply at first, but when 
pressed to say what she thought about it, she coolly 
answered that after all Austria was not a Prussian 
province and ought to be allowed the liberty to 
decide a matter whicli concerned her own fate. 
William understood, and determined to make Zita 
pay dearly for this proud answer. 

A campaign of calunmy was started against the 
Empress and the vilest untruths put into circula- 
tion about her. She did not seem to care, but set 
herself to try with all her might to withdraw the 



The Story of the Empress Zita 167 

country over which she reigned from this German 
alliance that was fast leading it to its ruin. 

The famous letter addressed by Charles I to his 
brother-in-law, Sixtus of Parma, was written en- 
tirely at the suggestion of his wife. She put forth 
all her efforts, used all her influence, to persuade 
the Allies to accept the olive branch which she had 
induced her husband to extend to them, and during 
the time she spent in Budapest, on the occasion of 
her Coronation as Queen of Hungary, she man- 
aged to win over to her side some of the most in- 
fluential Hungarian statesmen, to whom she ex- 
plained her desire not only to bring about this peace 
for which the whole world was sighing, but also to 
withdraw the Austrian Empire from this close 
union with Germany whose pawn it had been all 
through the tragedy that had transformed Euroi)e 
into one vast charnel house. 

But at this time Berlin had still much to say, and 
the fact that the Austrian army was commanded 
almost entirely by German officers rendered it ex- 
tremely difficult for the young Emperor to do any- 
thing independently of his formidable ally. He 
went several times to the German headquarters, 
and there discussed matters with the heads of the 



i68 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

German staff as well as with the Kaiser himself. 
It proved of no use, however ; he was told that cer- 
tain compromising letters of the Empress had been 
intercepted and had fallen into the hands of the 
Wilhelmstrasse, that he would not hesitate to make 
use of them should he resist the orders given him 
by William II. 

Charles was neither a coward nor a diplomat. 
Yet he acted with a diplomacy no one would have 
credited him with. He asked to see these incrim- 
inating epistles of his wife, and when they were put 
into his hands he quietly transferred them to his 
pocket. He thus saved her reputation, because, as 
matters then stood, it was certainly imprudent of 
her, to say the least, to have carried on a political 
correspondence independently of her husband or of 
his government; but this unexpected move of the 
Austrian monarch was not forgiven him by his en- 
emies, and though he consented afterwards to have 
his mother-in-law, the widowed Duchess of Parma, 
and her sons exiled from Austria and, further, to 
dismiss Count Czernin, his own personal friend, 
from his post as Minister of Foreign Affairs, these 
concessions did not smooth matters. It is likely 
that if the advance of Marshal Foch had not com- 



The Story of the Empress Zita 169 

pelled the Germans unexpectedly to seek an armi- 
stice, Charles of Hapsburg might have been de- 
throned by German military intervention in Aus- 
tria. 

When the news reached Vienna that the Allies 
were decidedly getting the upper hand, the first 
move in the direction of peace had already been 
made by the Austrian government, and later on 
the Kaiser declared that it was this defection of his 
allies that had made any further resistance impos- 
sible for his armies. The facts were very different, 
but this served as a pretext for German diplomacy 
to sow the seeds of dissension in the Dual Monarchy 
and to bring about finally a revolution in Vienna, 
the result of which was the fall of the ancient 
Hapsburg Lorraine dynasty. 

The proverbial ill-luck of the Bourbons had 
pursued the Empress Zita, now an Empress no 
longer. She accepted this last misfortune with the 
same haughty pride that had carried her through 
the difficulties of the few months during which she 
had reigned. It was not in her nature to murmur, 
far less to recriminate. She could look back with 
a certain satisfaction on her conduct during that 
trying time when she had been fighting against the 



lyo Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

iiitxst terrible odds ji AvoJiinn ever \\iu\ \o vuvouuicr. 
But in luT c'DMscioiisiuss lliMl slic hjid not Kill a 
dvixi' cnv [o [he InnunlMlions of hvv \)co\)\c was 
iiiiii^'kHl an ii\tonsc hittorncss at \\\v inoratitudo she 
had iiu t with, and the iTiicl and syslciuatic way in 
which nil her actions, oven the most innocent, liad 
been criticisinl and niisrepresenlcd. 1 1 cm* relnlions 
with her husband had also sulVered in conseiiuencv 
of this canipaig:: Ihal had hccw inauyuraled against 
her, and in the loneliness of their exile they did not. 
even find consolation in each other's afVection and 
love. TTe cared too much for what she had not. 
cared for at all, aiid therein lay the tragedy ol' their 
fate. Amont»- the patlu^tii' liom-es of the war Zita 
of l>ourbon is one of the most touehini»-. Unlike 
her French ancestors, of whom it had been said 
that they had learned nolhiui*- and had foroolten 
nothin<»\ she had learned much and I'orj^iviMi a ^^vcixt 
deal. As for fort>'ettino- n, past now forever dead, 
this is hardly to be (>x peeled of her after all the 
sufferin«;s that had been crowded into that })ast. 



VH 

TWO KOYM. MADWOMEN 

Onk <)\' Ui<t irivarialjJc customs of the Jfaps- 
bur^s, w]u.n(:v(:r any iiuttnlx^r of their faniiJy difJ 
something which was not in accord with the tradi- 
tions of their House, or which transgressed its 
severe laws of etiquette, was to declare them insane 
and tf> lock tfjcrrj u|> irj some prf>viricial castJe, or 
in a private Junatic asyJum, whence they were never 
allowf-fj to emerge after the gates had closed upon 
them. Tljis cxaujpJe had been followed even hy 
the high Austrian aristocracy, who also resorted t^i 
this method of getting rid of people of whom it did 
not approve, and, for those who could afford it, 
there was no r^ounlry in Kurojjc where it was easier 
to confine [icrfectly normal p(;ople to the horrors 
of a madhr)use than in the JJual Monarchy, where 
it was a simple matter to find dcxrtors who, for a 
consideration of a not trjo mrxlest nature, were 
ready to sign any certificate which was required of 
them. 'J'he victim was then conveyed to a sana- 
171 



\^2 Scrrcts of nctliroiud Royalty 

lorlimi, ;is il w;is cjillcd, on llic (loors of wlncli 
ini>»lil, linvc l»("(ii wrilhii wilh Inilli Ihc r.imons 
words of DjiiiIc: "Lnsci.-ilc oiniii spcrjiii/n." 'V\\c 
pl.icc w.is .1 kind of li\ in..- ^>r.ivc, llu- sloiic slal) of 
which never eoidd l)e riiised any more. Of Ihese 
islnhlishnienls Ihere exisled jihro;id inoi'e Ih.iii wns 
<"ver known, nnd llie nhnsc* wliieh eerlnin lii^h niid 
mighty people made of llieir iidlnenee and we.'dlh 
in order lo tliminale from Iheir palh r< lalives or 
friends hkely lo piovc an ohslacle lo their plans 
by having- Ihem declared mad was on<' of Ihe most 
cryino- injnslices in Anslrian select society. 

In the Imjxrial family several instances of this 
look |)lace. Anionn- others was Ihe case of Arch- 
duke liudwig" N'ictor, l''ia.ncis .loseph's young-cr 
. brother, w ho was ke|)t a prisoner in a castle in Sal/- 
I)nr^»' under Ihe pretext that he had lost his reason, 
and that llu* ex-Crown I'rincessof Saxony, Louise 
of Ilapslun/^- Toscana, did not share the same fate 
was heeause, warned in lime, she was able lo ed'ect 
her esea|)e into S\\ il/ciland, Ixfore she was nr- 
resled by ordei' of the I'anperor of Austria and 
conveyed to Ihe asylum where cvcrythini;- had al- 
ready been prej)are(l for her reception. 

'I'his unfortunale woman, whose actions havo 



Two Royal Madwomen 173 

been discussed wiUj so rnijch anirnosity, was more 
sinned against than sinrjing. SIk; was a very fV)ol- 
ish creature; tliis no orje Ijas ever denif;d; fjut sfje 
was not tJie (Jissolute person her enemies have rep- 
resentee] lier. Her education had been conducted 
on such false lines the only wonder is she did not 
commit sooner some far moj-e startlin;^ and eccen- 
tric deed than tliose r>r which she was a(;(;iised. Her 
father, (w-arjd Duke J^'erdinand <>\' 'J'oscana, was 
one oi' the jnost hi/^otcd anrl narrow-minded per- 
sons in existence. 1 1 is second wife, the Princess 
Alice of Parma, was a timid girl of about eighteen 
years of age when he married her and brought her 
to liis palace of Sal/berg, where he had retired after 
his expulsion from 'IViScana. She was told that it 
was her duty to olicy in everything the man to 
whf)m she was wedded. Hut she had not reckoned 
with his manias, nor with the turn whicli his bigotry 
would take. What was her stupefactir)n when, on 
tlie morning following her wedding, the Grand 
Duke appeared in her dressing-roorn carrying on 
his arm a long garuKTit of black serge, such as she 
had TK.'Vcr seen anywhere F)efore. He handed it to 
her with the retjuest that she sliould put it on be- 
fore getting into her bath, as it was a mortal sin to 



174 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

look upon one's body, even for tlie purposes of 
iibliition. It must here be added tbiit he eonsidered 
it such a sin that in order to esea})e it he seldom if 
ever performed sueh ablutions as are generally eon- 
sidered indispensable in eivilizeil society. 

It may be imagined that a man with such strange 
notions could not sympathise with a bright impetu- 
ous girl like his eldest daughter. Louise liad been 
very miserable at home, so that when she saw a 
chance of escaping the dull existence whicli she had 
feared she would be condenmed to lead forever she 
jumped at it with joy. The Crown I'rince of 
Saxony was a suitor hardly likely to be refused by 
any woman and Louise never supposed that in 
wedding him she was as it were "jumping out of 
the frying pan into the fire." 

In Dresden she found herself tlu-owu among 
people just as bigoted as her own and umcli less 
accommodating. Old King George of Saxony be- 
longed to that order of devout Catholics who con- 
sider that the most heinous crime any wonuui can 
commit is to try to live her own life regardless of 
the conventions; who insist on daily attendance at 
mass and abstinence from meat on Fridays. For 
him religion meant nothing else, and when he saw 



Two Royal Madwomen 175 

that his daughter-in-law did not observe this rou- 
tine as strietly as he himself did, he was ready to 
believe her guilty of the worst of crimes. 

His dignity, however, forbade him to make any 
open demonstration against Louise, but he con- 
sulted certain Austrian relatives of his, and they 
it was who suggested incarcerating the Crown 
Princess in an asylum under pretext that she had 
gone out of her mind. 

Louise had friends who warned her in time of 
the conspiracy hatched against her. She managed 
to escape from Dresden and repaired to Salzburg, 
where she implored her father's protection. But 
the intelligence of the Grand Duke of 'J'oscana 
never could grasp his daughter's helpless condition; 
so he told her he could not admit as an inmate of 
his house a woman who had abandoned her hus- 
band's home and that he would have nothing more 
to do with her unless she immediately returned to 
Dresden. 

The Crown Princess knew what this would mean 
to her; so with the help of one of her brothers and 
her children's tutor she made her way first to 
Switzerland and then to Italy. The result of this 
determination was an order issued by Emperor 



176 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

Francis Joseph declaring that as she liad for- 
feited her rank of an Anstrian Arehducliess she 
was no longer to use that title or the quarterings 
of the Ilapshurgs. 

What followed is well known; hut in view of 
these facts is it possihle entiiely to condemn the 
unfortunate and foolish woman who, heing in need 
of friends, sought and found tlieni amongst the last 
people to wliom slic ought to have given her con- 
fidence? 

The last act of the tragedy of her life is not 
known in America. The Crown Princess after her 
divorce from her second hushand, the miserahle 
Italian artist whom, to her sorrow, she had mar- 
ried, settled first in Hrussels and then in IJologna. 
When the war hroke out she retired to Switzerland 
again and there received a message from her for- 
mer hushand (who had in the meantime hecome 
King of Saxony) offering her one of his castles to 
reside in. Very foolishly she accepted this pro- 
])()sal, and as soon as slie had crossed the German 
frontier she was arrested hy order of the Kaiser 
and immediately transferred to a private lunatic 
asylum. This act was explained as a precaution- 
ary measure, it heing necessary to put her under 



Two Royal Madwomen 177 

restraint for fear that her Itahan sympathies might 
lead her to commiinieate important information to 
the enemy. This took place four years ago, and 
what happened to Louise of Tuscana after this 
crowning misfortune no one knows, and no one has 
had the charity to enquire. 

There was another liouise whose name also 
filled the columns of the newspapers of the entire 
world at one time, and whose fate was just as 
tragic as that of the Crown Princess of Saxony. 
I refer to Princess Louise of Belgium, the now 
divorced wife of King Ferdinand of Bulgaria. 
Here we have another example of the facility with 
which Austrians, under the old regime, could in- 
carcerate people in a lunatic asylum. The unfor- 
tunate daughter of King Leopold II was never 
for one moment deprived of her reason, hut she 
was heiress to many millions and she was the wife 
of one of the most unscrupulous men in existence, 
who not ordy did not hesitate to dishonour her hy 
spreading all kinds of false rumours concerning 
her, hut who even accused her of crimes which he 
had himself committed. 

I shall not enter here into the details of the 
famous so-called false hills of exchange which 



lyH Secrets of Dctliroiicd Royalty 

VriiUTss Louise luul given Lo ;i Trieiul of liers, 
Count IMailntslncli, to be discounted, but I will say 
one tbin<)- wbieli, so I'.-ir, I know has never been 
given |)ubb"eity and which, out of respect for the 
chihlren from whom she liad l)een se|)araled, the 
Princess did not reveal. 1^'inding herself one day 
in want of nioney^ she applied to her husband, and 
lie, seeing a chance to execute at last his nefarious 
designs against his wife, gave her the famous notes, 
the discounling of which landed Count Mattatschich 
in prison and liouise of l^clgium in a madhouse, 
where she was kept a prisonei" for seven years. 

Her escape had something of the miraculous 
about it. Nothing could have brought it about 
short of the passionate devotion which she had in- 
sj)ire(l in the few friends who determined to rescue 
her from the living grave into which she had been 
thrown. Hut this woman, who had been repre- 
sented as having lost control of her reason, dis- 
played on this memorable occasion a wonderful 
coolness and presence of mind. 

A message was cotiveyed to her that a motor 
car would await her on the other side of the high 
wall that suirounded the asylum, and a key was 
sent to her, hidden in a cake, with which she was 



Two Royal Madwrjmcn 179 

tc;lr] she could open the door of a lf>rig cfjrridor 
leading into the garden, and so reach a small 
postern dof>r, the f>ars of which harl f>ecn with- 
drawn, through which slie cfjiild gain the open field. 
15ijt she was to pro(;eed alone and tf> rr;ly only on 
her f)wn resources. At midnight the Princess 
(juietly left her room. In the adjoining aj)artment 
the nurse who had charge of her slept profoundly, 
her evening coffee having heen heavily druggf.-d. 
Ivouise mad(; her way along the corridor and dr>wn 
stairs with a heating heart. She held the [)re(;ious 
key that was to open to her the road to freedom; 
}>ut when she had inserterl it in tFie lock of the door 
leading into the garden, sh(,- could not turn it, try 
as she might. 

As she afterwarrls told a friend, this was the one 
moment of lier life when she thought she was really 
going to lose her reason. Jt seemerl too terrihle to 
he so near to this liherty of wfiich she had heen 
deprived i'or so many years, and not to he a}>le to 
reach it. At last, a desperate twist of the lfx:k and 
the door sprang open. There remained the garden 
to cross. 'J'he Princess, proceeding cautiously on 
her way, thought she heard footsteps hehind her. 
In an agony of fear she croucherl under some 



i8o Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

bushes, in the hope that she might not be seen. The 
steps came nearer and nearer till her very heart 
stood still, but she did not move. Soon a shadow 
crossed the path before her, that of one of the 
guards of the asylum who was making his usual 
nightly round. He was looking straight ahead and 
never noticed Louise, who remained for minutes 
(that seemed like hours) without stirring from her 
place of refuge. At last, when she thought that 
all danger was passed, she resumed her progress 
slowly and carefully, stopping noW^ and then to 
listen to every sound; but no one intercepted her, 
and she reached the postern door in safety. It 
stood wide open, and two of her friends, who had 
been awaiting her with indescribable anxiety, seized 
her by the hand and, throwing a long cloak over 
her shoulders, conducted her hastily to a motor car 
that was standing near-by. The chauffeur started 
the car and, after a night's mad drive, the Austrian 
frontier was crossed, and Louise of Coburg was 
free at last. 



PART III 
GERMANY 



AN OLD FAMILY S( ANDAL OF TIIK 
HOMFNZOLLKRNS 

TnKRK is iioUiing new in the saying that the 
Ilofienzollerns liave never been whut could })e 
eulled scrupulous. It is not generally known, fiow- 
evcr, tlint they have carried tJieir unscrui)uIous 
inclhods (;ven into Uicir business (!(;alings wiUi each 
other, and, as an ilhjstralion oi' tliis fact, Uie fol- 
lowing httU; tah' may prove of interest to the 
American puhhc, wlio, so far as I know, has never 
yet heard it. 

In the year 175(1 it seemed as if the reigning 
branch of the llohen/ollerns was about to become 
extinct. rVederick the (Jrc.'it, whih; still a mere 
youth, had been compelled by his faUuT, r'rcderick 
William I, t() in.'irry the Princ(;ss l^'Ji/abclh Chris- 
tine of Brunswick WoU'cnbutlel. He had always 
refused lo live wilh her and even to speak to her, 
though he had invariably treated her with great 
respect. They used to meet ceremoniously on state 
183 



184 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

occasions, and dined together with the other mem- 
bers of the Royal family on Sundays, but whenever 
the King desired to convey some message to his 
consort he either did so in writing or through her 
Mistress of the Robes; he never addressed her di- 
rectly. They were filled with mutual admiration 
but never spoke to one another, and this abnormal 
situation continued until Frederick's death, the 
Queen surviving him for about eight or nine years. 
The heir to the throne was Frederick's nephew, 
afterwards King Frederick William II. He had 
been left an orphan wlien a mere child. He had 
one daughter by his first wife (also a Princess of 
Brunswick) whom he had divorced, and his second 
marriage had, so far, not been blessed with any off- 
spring. The King's eldest brother, Prince Henry 
of Prussia, was childless, and the youngest, Prince 
Ferdinand, wedded to a Princess of Brandenburg 
Schwedt, was supposed to be debarred from the 
chance of having any posterity on account of the 
state of his health. 

It then appeared likely, at the time I am writing 
about, that the Crown would pass to some distant 
cousins of the reigning branch of the Hohenzol- 
lerns, whom Frederick the Great hated as a Prus- 



Family Scandal of Hohenzollerns 185 

sian only can hate, and to whom he had even denied 
permission to come to Berhn for a brief visit. For 
years the King had hoped that one of his sisters- 
in-law would present him with an heir and that 
neither of them had done so had been a source of 
great grief and anxiety to him. Then a curious 
idea occurred to him and he started to perpetrate 
one of those gigantic frauds so characteristic of 
him. This time, however, it was not directed 
against any of his foreign enemies, but against 
members of his own race and blood, whom he 
wished to deprive of their birthright. 

The Princess Ferdinand was a very pretty 
woman and had many admirers. She encouraged 
none of them, however, but remained cold to them 
all, because, though she did not care for her hus- 
band, who was almost idiotic, she was a woman of 
high principles. At the same time, she was am- 
bitious, and she relished no more than did her 
brother-in-law the idea of the Crown of Prussia 
passing to a collateral branch of the family. Fred- 
erick II tried to work upon her feelings and to 
break down her high moral standing, but finding 
that all his efforts in that direction failed he be- 
thought himself of a plan which, incredible though 



i86 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

it may appear, lie contrived to ])iit into cxecntion. 

He persuaded the Princess Ferdinand to an- 
nounce that she had hopes of becoming a mother 
and to simuhite an accouchement. The chihl of 
one of the gardeners of Sans Souci was secretly 
brought to her apartments by the King himself, 
and the olliciai (ia/ette announced that Her Royal 
Highness liad given birth to a son and heir. 

This little stranger Avas brought up most care- 
fully and became quite a favourite with his sup- 
posed uncle, whose cynicism caused him to enjoy 
secretly the trick he had succeeded in ])laying on 
his detested relatives, who no doubt had given up 
all hopes of mounting the Prussian Throne. No 
one in l^erlin or at Court sus|)cctcd tlie fraud that 
had been perpetrated, and the Princess Ferdinand 
herself appeared quite interested in this little boy 
whom she had been told to accept as her son, and 
grew to love him very much. 

Then one day, about six or seven years after the 
events 1 have related, tlie unexpected happened. 
Prince Frederick William of Prussia, the King's 
nephew and presumi)tive successor, divorced his 
wife and married for the third time, with the result 
that a son was born to him, who was one day to be- 



Family Scandal of Hoheiizollerns 187 

conic Frederick William I IT, and the Father of the 
first (iernian Emperor, William I. And (as if 
this were not snffieient) the Princess Ferdinand in 
her tnrn hecamc a mother, her eldest-born hein*^- a 
dan^hter, the Princess Louise, afterwards the wife 
of Prince Anthony llad/iwill. Her second child 
was a hoy, the famous Prince Louis Ferdinand, 
who was to fall on the hattlelield of .Jena. 

The lloyal Family thus found itself saddled 
with a child that was an utter stranger; that had 
been thrown into its midst by an abominable fraud. 
No one knew what to do about it. The inventive 
genius of Frederick II was called upon to inter- 
fere for the second time and to find a solution of 
the difhculty. 

Of c(Hirse it was impossible to reveal the trick 
which had been played by him, with the connivance 
of his brother and sister-in-law, on his cousins. At 
the san»e time he refused to acknowledge as a mem- 
ber of his house the stranger he had introduced into 
it, once the necessity for such a step had passed 
away. The child had, therefore, to be got rid of 
in some way or other. 

The olHcial Gazette announced one morning that 
the son of their Royal Highnesses Prince and 



i88 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

Princess Ferdinand of Prussiii hud been taken sud- 
denly ill and had passed away, to the intense grief 
of his august parents as well as of His Majesty 
the King. A coffin filled with stones was then 
buried with great pomp and ceremony in the Dom 
Cathedral of Berlin, and the Court put on mourn- 
ing for the prescribed period, while the unfortunate 
boy who for about seven years had been brought 
up as a Royal Prince was secretly taken away and 
put in a place of safety, the whereabouts of which 
was known only to Frederick the Great, who did 
not even reveal the secret to his brother or sister- 
in-law, whom he had compelled for the second time 
to lend themselves to his unscrupulous schemes. 

The King fondly imagined that no one would 
ever know the story of this gigantic fraud, but a 
record of it was kept by the Princess Ferdinand — 
no one knows why, for the part she played in this 
sordid intrigue was certainly not to her credit — 
and her daughter, the Princess Louise, wrote an 
account of it in a private volume of Reminiscences 
which she left in her will to her eldest son, Prince 
William Radziwill, who became the head of that 
branch of the Radziwill family that settled in Prus- 
sia, where they remained until the death of the old 



Family Scandal of Hohenzollerns 189 

Emperor William, when they returned to Russia 
to live on their estates in that country. 

This Princess Louise promised King Frederick 
William III (of whose consort, the famous Queen 
Louise, she was a great friend) never to let anyone 
know the details of this family scandal, and after 
her death her son did not reveal it to anyone, not 
even to his own wife or children. 

After he had in his turn passed away, the Radzi- 
will family suddenly decided that it would be inter- 
esting to publish the memoirs of their grandmother, 
though none of them had been curious enough 
hitherto to read them. But when they came upon 
the tale which I have just related, some scruples 
seized them and they decided to ask Kaiser Wil- 
liam II's permission to allow it to become public 
property. This permission was, of course, refused, 
and the Emperor even asked that the pages con- 
taining the story be either returned to him or de- 
stroyed. The Radziwills, however, did nothing of 
the kind, and though the episode was suppressed 
when their ancestress's Reminiscences appeared in 
Paris a year or two before the great war, the 
manuscript itself remained in their possession, and 
was taken by them to their family estate in 



190 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

I^ithiiania, Avlicrc it iiuist still be, unless the house 
has been sacked by the liolsheviks who were at one 
time reported to have taken it. 

It has appeared to nie that this sordid tale illus- 
trates too well the TToheir/ollern character to re- 
main buried in the family archives. It proves that 
in peace or in war, in their public careers as well 
as in their fauu'ly life, they have always been the 
same — determined to force their will whenever and 
wherever they thought to gain advantage for them- 
selves or furtherance of their schemes; always 
ready to practise fraud on those whom they dis- 
liked and to despoil them of their property if they 
had conceived a desire for it. Can one wonder that 
they tried to seize Belgium, when one sees that tliey 
carried their want of moral principles so far as to 
try to despoil their own relatives? There is not so 
great a difference after all between robbing a throne 
and stealing a country. 



II 



THE BERLIN COURT UNDER 
WILLIAM I 

The Prussian Court under the grandfather of 
the ex-Kaiser was quite different from what it he- 
eame during his grandson's reign. For one thing 
it was not so stiff, though perhaps far less dull. 
The evening parties given in the Royal I'alaee (of 
whieh there was a multitude during the winter 
season) were more like family gatherings than 
state receptions. Everybody knew everybody else, 
and of course gossip flourished, especially with re- 
gard to newcomers. The old Empress Augusta 
was a martinet and did not permit the least infrac- 
tion of those laws of etiquette she had herself laid 
down, and she could be extremely disagreeable to 
the unfortunate peofde who either through igno- 
rance or forgetfulness transgressed them. 

I remember one evening, when suffering from a 
severe cold, I could not find my handkerchief or 
reach my pocket (one still had pockets in those 
191 



192 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

days) and was struggling so painfully in my ef- 
forts to do so that it attracted the attention of 
Prince Henrj^ VII of Reuss, at that time German 
Ambassador in St. Petersburg (and a personal 
friend of mine) who happened to be on leave in 
Berlin. He was sitting behind me and some very 
dull music was being performed which had sent 
nearly everj^one to sleep. The Prince guessed 
what had happened and politely offered to help 
me to extract from its retreat in the back of my 
dress the square of muslin I was frantically seek- 
ing, a proposal which I accepted with deep grati- 
tude. 'No sooner said than done, and my saviour 
— for such he appeared to me in my predicament, 
sneezing being strictly prohibited at Court — very 
quickly dived into my pocket and produced the 
much-longed-for handkerchief, to my silent joy 
and relief. We never for a moment thought that 
anyone could see our little pantomime, far less sus- 
pected that the Empress would notice it, though 
she was seated directly opposite. But nothing es- 
caped the vigilant eye of Augusta, and next day 
she wrote to my mother-in-law requesting her to 
open my eyes to the iniquity of my conduct. It 
was no use trying to excuse myself. I was told 




Col^xiiijlit, Intel national Film Service 

Empkrok William I. of Germany 
Signing an Official Document on His Deathbed 



The Berlin Court Under William I 193 

that one should not sneeze in tlie presenee of roy- 
alty, even if* one had a eold, and that if sueh a mis- 
fortune must happen it was better to eoneeal it 
witli one's fan than to aeeept the help of a man in 
finding one's handkerehief. 

In spite of this severity whieh pervaded her 
Court, Augusta had to smile and eondone many 
misdeeds eommitted by her own family. Some 
members of it were eontinually in her bad books, 
but she could never f)iinish them as she would have 
liked to do. Among them was her own brother-in- 
law, old Prinee Charles of Pjussia, who, in spite 
of his advanced age, was very fond of fair ladies, 
and who was sui>posed to find particular pastime 
in flirting with all his wife's ladies-in-waiting, most 
of whom were [)retty women — he took care this 
should be so. 

The I'rineess Charles was the Emj)ress's eldest 
sister, and, though far more amial)le than the latter, 
was sometimes inclined, even after she had passed 
her seventieth year, to fits of jealousy. One after- 
noon, on entering the apartment of a particularly 
handsome Mistress of the Robes, she found, to her 
profound indignation, her aged husband comfort- 
ably stretched upon a sofa smoking the cigarettes 



194 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

which she would never allow him to prodiiee in her 
own rooms. 

A terrible scene ensned and the Princess carried 
her ^Ticvances to the Km[)ress, who. in her turn, 
related the story to the King'. The latter, who 
kncAv both his brother and sister-in-law and was al- 
ways ready to find excuses for sins of the kind, 
tried to appease his wife, but could think of no 
better method than to keep on repeating that she 
nuist not get excited: "Because, after all, Marie 
(such was the name of the Princess Charles) is so 
ugly that it is not surprising if the Prince tries to 
console himself by looking at a pretty woman." 

Augusta was so furious that she forthwith had 
her things packed and started for leaden Haden, on 
pretext of going to see her daughter who was living 
there at the time, and to the relief of the Emperor, 
who was never ha])pier than during the few weeks 
in the year when he was able to lead a bachelor's 
existence, undisturbed by the complaints of his 
wife. 

As for Prince Charles, he had never been the 
Empress's favourite, and after the death of the 
Princess they seldom saw one another except upon 
official occasions. On one of these occasions 



The ikriin Cjourt Under William J 195 

Au^.sta approached hir/i, and in a biting tone ob- 
served that she supposed he was now enjoying his 
liberty and amusing himself all the time in the 
company of the pretty ladies who had always been 
his favourites. To understand the irony of this re- 
mark one must remember that the object of it was 
close to his eightieth birthday! 

Another pet aversion of the Empress was the 
famous Red Prince, Frederick Charles; but as re- 
gards him she had reasonable grr^urids ff^r her 
antipathy. The Prince was one of the most brutal 
men in existence. 'Hie world rn^vtr saw much of 
him because sfK'iety bored him and he preferred to 
spend his time in his shooting box of Klein Glien- 
icke near J*otsdam, with some personal friends who 
were just as hard drinkers and as excellent shots 
as himself. And it was popularly believed that it 
was better for one's safety to avoid him, because 
there was no knowing what he might or might not 
do. He had a wife who had been in her youth one 
of the loveliest women of her time, and whom he 
ill-treated to such an extent that the deafness from 
which she suffered during the last years of her 
existence was attributed to the nervous shock she 
had sustained after the birth of her third daughter, 



196 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

who became later on the Duchess of Connaught, 
when her husband in his rage at not obtaining the 
male heir for whom he had been longing, boxed the 
ears of his miserable wife, who nearly died of 
fright. 

She was a charming woman, this unfortunate 
Princess, full of wit and talent and always ready 
to enjoy life, though pleasure seldom came her 
way. She used to draw most clever caricatures, 
but the fact that she could do so had never reached 
the ears of the old Empress Augusta, until one 
unhappy day when the latter, having taken it into 
her head to pay a visit to her niece by marriage, 
found her looking over an album in which she had 
made humorous sketches of some of the Court offi- 
cials. The Empress asked to see the book and was 
highly offended when the Princess refused to show 
it to her, pretending that it contained nothing but 
rough drawings which she would be ashamed to 
exhibit. 

"Are you afraid of my criticisms?" enquired 
Augusta. 

"Yes," answered the Princess, "because I have 
seen some sketches which you made a few years 
ago, dear Aunt, and 1 have been trying to copy 



The Berlin Court Under William I 197 

them, but until 1 can show you that I have done so 
to my satisfaction I do not wish you to see my ef- 
forts. You would think that my attempts to imitate 
your beautiful drawings border on sacrilege. 
Please give me more time. I hope to be able yet to 
show you something which will meet with your ap- 
proval." 

The story does not say whether or not the Em- 
press was convinced by this excuse. She was as a 
njle accessible to flattery, but, on the other hand, 
she may have had her suspicions, for a few days 
later, in relating the story to one of her friends, 
she remarked that the Princess Frederick Charles 
had a very ready tongue, and that it was difficult 
to take her unawares. 

She was neither kind nor indulgent, this old Em- 
press, and though she had the best intentions in 
the world, she did not possess the gift of creating 
sympathy or affection in those who surrounded her. 
She was affected to the last degree and the ridicu- 
lous manner in which she dressed had much to do 
with the unpleasant impression she produced at 
first sight. Always attired like a girl of eighteen 
or twenty, she liked to appear in sky-blue or pale 
green gowns, and these delicate shades were not 



198 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

becoming to her, nor was the voluminous wig which 
covered her head. 

It was a marvellous wig, all curls and plaits, and 
on state occasions an immense and high diamond 
tiara towered on top of it all. This wig was brown, 
whilst that of her sister, Princess Charles, was of 
a lighter colour. It seems that one day when the 
two sisters were staying together in their native 
castle of Weimar, on a visit to their brother, the 
Grand Duke of that name, their maids, being 
hurried, got the two perukes mixed ; so, to the gen- 
eral surprise, the Empress appeared at dinner with 
blonde hair, whilst the Princess Charles's had sud- 
denly grown quite dark. Courtiers have a wonder- 
ful gift of self-control, for no one even smiled when 
the two old ladies entered the room. 

Princess Charles was unfortunate when it came 
to questions of self-adormnent. One day when 
walking in the grounds of the Palace of Babels- 
berg in Potsdam she lost her lower teeth. Thej'^ 
were very expensive teeth, and quite new into the 
bargain, which was probably the reason they did 
not fit and managed to drop from her mouth. The 
Princess was very near-sighted, so, though she 
searched carefully, she could not find the plate and 



The Berlin Court Under William I 199 

had to return home in despair. She sent her maids 
to seek for the lost teeth, but in the meantime the 
gardener had found them and, never suspecting to 
whom they belonged, carried them to the Em- 
press's maid, with the remark that he supposed 
they were the property of Her Majesty. 

The story was told to Augusta, who flew into 
one of the worst passions she had ever displayed. 
She sent for the unfortunate man and read him a 
lecture, telling him that he should have thrown the 
things into the garbage pail and have said nothing 
about them. She ended with the remark: 

"It is the Princess Charles who has false teeth. 
If I had them they would be better made and not 
fall out of my mouth." 

At seventy-nine years of age (which she was at 
the time) Augusta had not forgotten what 
coquetry meant, and she would have been in despair 
if anyone, even a gardener, had thought that she 
could not crack nuts with the facility of a boy of 
twelve. 



Ill 

A SISTER-IN-LAW OF THE KAISER 

The brutal Red Prince, whose ill treatment of 
his wife, the charming Anhalt Princess, I have al- 
ready related, was an exceedingly rich man. His 
father, old Prince Charles, had inherited an im- 
mense fortune from a distant relative. Prince 
August Wilhelm of Prussia, who had died a 
bachelor, in Rome, and Prince Charles added con- 
siderably to it by successful speculations. 

During his lifetime his large establishments in 
Berlin and Potsdam were splendidly kept up and 
his dinners were renowned. He had two daugh- 
ters, both married to Hessian Princes of small im- 
portance, and one son, whose nickname of "Red 
Prince" was far better known abroad than his real 
name, Frederick Charles. This son inherited the 
wealth of his father, also his numerous estates, and 
this partly explains his desire to have a son and his 
disappointment when three girls in succession made 



A Sister-in-Law of the Kaiser 201 

their appearance. He took, as we have seen, a 
radical way of expressing his anger with his wife, 
and this seems to have moved her to a better fulfil- 
ment of her duties, because some five years after 
the birth of her daughter, the future Duchess of 
Connaught, she presented her husband with the 
much-wished-for heir. 

The child was called Frederick Leopold, and his 
arrival brought about a temporary reconciliation 
between his parents who both became devoted to 
him. The Red Prince made great plans for him 
and declared that though he had never been 
ambitious for himself he felt sure that he would be 
so for his son. He did not, however, live long 
enough to accomplish much; when he passed away 
Prince Frederick Leopold was not quite twenty 
years old. The old Emperor WiUiam I constituted 
himself his guardian at once and administered his 
vast inheritance so wisely that it considerably im- 
proved and increased in value before its owner 
came of age. For one of his tender years he showed 
great wisdom by allowing the property to remain 
under the care of the Ministry of the Imperial 
Household ; in this way he was relieved of consider- 
able responsibility and of the expense which would 



202 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

otherwise have been iiiciiiTed by employing stew- 
ards. 

Prince Frederick Leopold was very different 
from his father. lie had inherited some of his 
mother's artistic tastes, together with her shyness, 
and at the time of the accession to the Throne of 
the ex-Kaiser he was looked upon as a meek young 
man, entirely lacking in the spirit of independence, 
and easily led, especially by the Empress Augusta 
Victoria, the consort of William II, who, being 
very fond of her own family, and having sisters to 
establish in the world, bethought herself that the 
youthful Prince would make an excellent husband 
for one of them. The eldest, Caroline Mathilde, 
was already married to her cousin, Duke Freder- 
« ick of Schleswig Ilolstein, and there still remained 
two unmarried. 

The sorry part of the affair lay in the fact that 
neither Frederick Leopold nor the Princess Louise 
of Schleswig wished to marry, and especially were 
they averse to marrying each other. The hearts of 
both of them were engaged elsewhere and they 
had never evinced the slightest sympathy for one 
another. But the Kaiserin, in spite of her gentle- 
ness, could exhibit considerable firmness on certain 



A Sister-in-Law of the Kaiser 203 

occasions, and she began to exercise strong pres- 
sure on her sister as well as on the Prince. She 
represented to lionise that Frederick Leopold was 
one of the best matches in Germany, whom it would 
be folly to refuse and, besides, the mildness of his 
disposition would ensure for his future wife the 
certainty that she would be allowed to do what she 
liked and this was as much as any woman could 
hope for. 

This last argument appealed to the I^rincess who 
had always felt more or less crushed in her home 
where the rather trying temper of her mother and 
the struggle, through lack of means, to live up to 
their position, had not created a harmonious atmos- 
phere. She finally yielded to her sister's pleadings 
and the latter set herself to the task of persuading 
the unwilling bridegroom-elect to take the plunge 
into matrimony. 

This did not prove quite as easy as she had ex- 
pected, for Frederick Leopold had become sus- 
picious and was careful not to take any step that 
might be interpreted as a desire on his part to re- 
nounce the joys of bachelorhood. At last the Em- 
press made up her mind to resort to desperate 
means to convince him that the happiness of his life 



204 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

depended on his marriage to Louise of Schleswig. 
She accordingly invited him to dinner at the new 
Palace of Potsdam on a day when she knew that 
the Emperor would not be there and, therefore, she 
would have the field free for the carrying out of 
her conspiracy. Frederick, not knowing what was 
in store for him, duly appeared at the appointed 
hour and found Augusta Victoria reclining on a 
couch and complaining of an awful headache. He 
wished to take his leave, but she refused to allow 
him to do so, saying that she felt sure she would 
be better after dinner, and that in the meantime 
he could be entertained by the Princess Louise who 
happened to be her guest at the time. Poor Fred- 
erick Leopold could only acquiesce, and after the 
meal was over the Empress declared that she felt 
much better but that she would go and take a head- 
ache powder which she thought she needed to re- 
store her entirely to her usual condition of health. 
She asked her cousin to await for her return, which 
would be in a few minutes, and advised her sister 
to play for him in the meanwhile some of the 
Chopin waltzes of which she knew that he was very 
fond. 

Louise was an excellent musician and as her 



A Sister-in-Law of the Kaiser 205 

fingers wandered over the keys of the piano, Fred- 
erick Leopold, a passionate lover of music, became 
quite enthralled. He turned the pages for her, 
and, being short-sighted, was leaning over her 
shoulder with his head very close to hers when the 
Kaiserin returned, so noiselessly that neither of the 
occupants of the room heard her enter. 

She said nothing, but dismissed her sister, and 
then set about reading her unfortunate cousin a 
lecture, saying that she had distinctly seen him kiss 
the Princess. Such a thing, she said, could not be 
tolerated by her for one moment; she would com- 
plain to the Kaiser and have him exiled from Ber- 
lin, unless he made the only reparation in his power 
by marrying Louise. The miserable Frederick 
Leopold was so utterly taken aback that he could 
do nothing but declare that such a marriage was 
precisely what he had been wishing for; and 
Augusta Victoria, knowing better than to let the 
grass grow under her feet after this successful ruse, 
called the Princess back and gave them her bless- 
ing. She hastened to telegraph the good news to 
the Kaiser, her own mother, and the Dowager 
Frederick Charles of Prussia in Rome where the 
latter was spending the winter. 



2o6 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

Of course, everybody expressed delight, and 
when the marriage actually took place in the fol- 
lowing June it was described as one of pure af- 
fection, inspired by the most disinterested motives. 
This did not prevent the Kaiser from insisting 
upon the most liberal settlements and squeezing out 
of Frederick Leopold wedding presents for his 
bride such as had never before been seen in Berlin. 
If the Emperor had expected the Princess 
Louise to show herself grateful to him for his dis- 
play of interest on her behalf he was to be disap- 
pointed. The girl intended that her marriage 
should emancipate her from all thraldom and, feel- 
ing secure in her position as well as in her influence 
over her weak-minded husband, she evinced a spirit 
. of independence which offended not only Berlin 
society but also her Imperial sister. Louise wore 
the most extraordinary costumes, which she took 
care to order in Paris and Vienna; she rode to 
hounds, cross saddle, to the scandal of the Royal 
family; she made intimate friends of people who 
were not at all "hoffilhig" (to use the expression 
dear to German hearts, meaning not worthy by 
reason of their birth to be received at Court) ; and 
one fine day she so far forgot what was due to her 



A Sister-in-Law of tlie Kaiser 207 

rank as to show herself on the public skating rink 
of Potsdam, instead of keeping to the reserved in- 
closure where Royalty was allowed to disjKjrt itself 
in solitary grandeur. 

This last venture proved disastrous, because the 
ice was very thin, and I^ouise (who was not exactly 
whaL could be called a light weight) suddenly dis- 
appeared into a hole. She was dragged out with 
great difficulty, in a condition which bordered 
upon collapse, and taken home in her wet clothes 
in a dilapidated hansom, which happened to be the 
only conveyance at hand. Five minutes later the 
whole of Potsdam was ringing with the news, and 
when it reached the ears of the Kaiser it proved 
too much for his equanimity: he rushed to the castle 
of Glienicke, the residence of Prince and Princess 
Frederick Leopold, and forthwith proceeded to 
place his sister-in-law under arrest, forbidding her 
to leave her room for three weeks. It was useless 
for the Kaiserin to plead for the delinquent, Wil- 
helm would not be pacified and people wondered 
what would be the outcome of the adventure, be- 
cause no one who knew Louise, even slightly, 
imagined for one moment that she would obey the 
commands of the angry monarch. 



2o8 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

Providence, however, interfered and settled the 
question, for her immersion brought about pneu- 
monia and for several weeks she lay at death's 
door. When she could leave her bed, Wilhelm had 
betaken himself on one of his numerous journeys 
across Europe, and the question of her accepting 
his decision or rebelling against it was not raised. 

But the independent habits of the Princess 
Louise did not undergo any transformation after 
this mishap. On the contrary, she seemed to take 
a particular pleasure in thwarting all the notions 
of propriety of both the Emperor and the Em- 
press, so that the latter often regretted that she 
had been so foolish as to exert herself to secure 
for this sister, who was continually getting into 
trouble, the brilliant establishment which had 
brought her to Berlin and placed her in such close 
proximity to herself. 

At last, a few weeks before the war, the climax 
was reached. Louise, who had sent out invitations 
to a large party to be held in the park of her castle 
of Glienicke, refused to cancel it after the murder 
of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, saying she 
did not see why she should affect sorrow for an 
event which had given the Kaiser the pretext he re- 



A Sister-In-Law of the Kaiser 209 

quired for patting certain plans of his (of which 
she did not approve) into execution. This remark 
was enough to set busy tongues wagging, and it 
was remembered later on, when the great war 
came. 

Her brother-in-law took his revenge upon her 
later, and did so in the brutal, cynical way which 
is typical of the Hohenzollerns. Louise's third son 
was mortally wounded in one of the engagements 
on the Yser line and taken prisoner by the British. 
The mother applied to the King of Spain to obtain 
authorisation for her to cross over to London and 
thence to the hospital where he had been taken. 
Chivalrous, as usual, the British Government 
granted her request, but as she was about to start 
the Kaiser interfered and ordered her to remain 
where she was. The supplications of the unfortu- 
nate mother proved of no avail ; the military authori- 
ties received orders not to let her pass, and when 
she pleaded with her sister for mercy the only reply 
she received was that the Emperor had reason to 
fear that the Princess might impart some news of 
military interest to the enemy, and that under such 
conditions he could not allow her to leave Berlin. 

Young Prince Frederick Charles, in the mean- 



210 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

while, was slowly dying, after a severe operation 
which had been performed in the hope of saving his 
life. He constantly asked for his mother, and 
when he realized what it was that was holding her 
back the unfortunate boy lost all power of self- 
control and cursed the author of his misery and 
that of so many other human beings. It was the 
first time in their family history that a Ilohenzol- 
lern had died invoking the powers of heaven against 
the head of his dynasty. 



IV 



THE GRAND DUCAL FAMILY OF 
WEIMAR 

During the reign of the old Emperor William I 
the Weimar Grand Ducal family was often seen 
in Berlin, and its head, old Duke Charles Alex- 
ander, was considered a most important personage 
in Court circles owing to his being the brother of 
the Empress Augusta, her favourite brother, in 
fact, though no one knew why, for the Empress, in 
spite of her peculiarities and small innocent 
vanities, was a clever woman, whilst Charles Alex- 
ander could not be called, even by his best friends, 
a clever or an intelligent man. But he had a high 
opinion of his own importance and of the insignifi- 
cance of his neighbour, which conviction helped him 
to get on most comfortably in life. He used to 
appear at regular intervals in the German capital, 
where he bored the old Emperor to distraction, but 
where he was always welcomed with effusion by the 
Empress. 



212 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

The old man had such a firm behef in his own 
attractive quahties that he once expressed himself 
as being much surprised that he had happened to 
meet persons just as clever if not cleverer than 
himself. This knowledge made him at times un- 
comfortable and ruffled the equanimity with which 
he considered existence in general and his own in 
particular ; but it did not prevent him from digest- 
ing his dinner or enjoying the cup of coffee with 
which he finished this (to him) important meal. 
He believed that he had great political intuition 
and that he was an expert in diplomatic matters. 
Bismarck, who abominated him, used to relate how 
one day in Versailles, just before the conclusion of 
the armistice with France, the Grand Duke of 
Weimar had called upon him and suggested the 
advisability of raising his small Dukedom into a 
Monarchy, under the pretext that in the new Ger- 
many which had come into existence with the 
proclamation of the Empire one of the first places 
ought to belong to the brother-in-law of the first 
Hohenzollem Emperor. 

The Chancellor, in spite of the contempt in which 
he held the Grand Duke, did not wish to quarrel 
with him, because he knew that he possessed the 




Photograph, Unilcii.'ood c'r Underwood, N. Y. 



Gramd Duchess Theodora of Saxe-Weimar 



Grand Ducal Family of Weimar 213 

entire confidence of the iLlmpress Augusta, who 
was weak enough to entrust him with all her plans, 
a knowledge of which was a source of continual 
satisfaction to Charles Alexander, from whom it 
was most easy afterwards to extract full informa- 
tion. And Bismarck liked to pump him dry, as it 
was of the utmost importance to him to be aware 
of the "machinations," as he called them, of the 
Empress. Therefore, when the Duke came to him 
with the remarkable proposal of being transformed 
into a King the Prince did not discourage him, but 
told him that this would depend solely on the Em- 
peror, who alone could bring it about; therefore, 
he advised him to apply to the latter. Charles 
Alexander never hesitated to "rush in where angels 
fear to tread," and he instantly repaired to the 
Versailles Prefecture, where the Headquarters of 
the German army were located, and presented his 
case to the Emperor, with the result that the latter 
told him to go to a very warm place and not to 
come and bother him any more with demands so 
entirely devoid of common sense. 

A very witty woman once said, when speaking 
of the Weimar family, that they were a race of apes 
who had learned to speak. The remark was an in- 



214 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

suit — to the apes, whose mental faculties most cer- 
tainly surpassed those of the Grand Duke of 
Weimar and of his son and heir, the latter being 
a degenerate caricature of himself. This was rather 
wonderful, because the Grand Duchess, whilst one 
of the ugliest women in creation, was also one of 
the most intelligent. She was a Princess of the 
Netherlands by birth and a representative of the 
old type, who could never under any circumstances 
whatsoever behave otherwise than with dignity. 
How she had been able to get on with a man of 
such low mental calibre as her husband remained 
a nine days' wonder for all who knew them both. 
As for their only son, he went through life without 
accomplishing anything worth speaking of and died 
before his father, leaving one boy to inherit the 
throne of Weimar, to which he duly succeeded 
after Charles Alexander had been removed to a 
better world. 

The new Sovereign was only five and twenty at 
the time of his accession, but had already had time 
to demonstrate the fact that he would never under 
any circumstances succeed in becoming a popular 
monarch. For one thing, he was, in spite of his 
enormous fortune, excessively parsimonious, so 



Grand Ducal Family of Weimar 215 

much so that once when making preparations for 
a visit to London, knowing he would be compelled 
whilst there to wear civilian clothes instead of the 
uniform he wore at home, he took with him a tall 
silk hat that had belonged to his father about 
twenty years before, and thus saved himself the 
necessity of buying a new hat which would be 
absolutely useless to him after his return to Ger- 
many. The hat, of course, was old-fashioned, so 
old-fashioned indeed that the Grand Duke had to 
acknowledge reluctantly that he could not be seen 
in it in Bond Street or Piccadilly. He consented, 
therefore, to buy a new one, but having done so he 
started at once for Whitechapel to visit the old 
clothes dealers in that aristocratic ( ?) part of Lon- 
don, to whom he offered his father's hat "for a 
song," as he expressed it, much to his sorrow and 
regret, as he realised that it was impossible to exact 
a high price for the family relic. A patriarch whose 
customers hailed from the lov/est ghettos in the 
United Kingdom at last came forward and paid 
one shilling and sixpence for it, and the Grand 
Duke pocketed the sum with a satisfaction that was 
worthy of a better cause. 

About two years or so after his accession to the 



2i6 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

throne this economical young man married the 
Princess Caroline of Reuss, a pretty girl and ex- 
tremely rich. He bullied her to his heart's content 
and made things so uncomfortable for her that one 
day she ran away from him and sought refuge with 
one of her aunts, who, after long persuasion, at last 
prevailed upon her to return to the splendours of 
the Weimar Court, on condition of her husband's 
promise not to interfere, as formerly, with her do- 
mestic arrangements. 

The young Grand Duke promised everything. 
He had had a fright, not at the thought of losing 
his wife, but of having to give her back her im- 
mense dowry, in case of a divorce or separation. 
An unforeseen event occurred, however : the Grand 
Duchess caught typhoid fever shortly after her re- 
turn to her husband's house and died in a few days. 
We are told that with her last breath she thanked 
God that she was going to a place where there 
would be no Weimars to make her unhappy. The 
Grand Duke, to all appearances, mourned her 
deeply, but at the same time did something which 
gave rise to one of the greatest scandals that had 
ever been known in Germany, at least in a Royal 
house. He caused all his wife's wardrobe and linen 



Grand Ducal Family of Weimar 217 

to be sold at auction in the castle of Weimar, giv- 
ing as an excuse for this exhibition of parsimony 
the necessity for raising money for her funeral ex- 
penses. Considering that he was generally looked 
upon as one of the richest men in Europe, the 
reader may easily imagine what impression was 
made by this unceremonious way of handling the 
property of the dead woman who had been a reign- 
ing Grand Duchess of Saxe- Weimar. 

This family has had more than this one scandal to 
enliven its history during the last fifteen years or 
so. A cousin of the Grand Duke, the Princess 
Sophy, was the heroine of a terrible drama a few 
months before the outbreak of the great war. She 
was the daughter of Prince William of Weimar 
and, owing to the embarrassed financial condition 
of her parents, had been brought up in Heidelberg 
where they had settled for economy's sake. There 
she led, more or less, the existence of a private lady 
of rank, going about with far more freedom than 
she would have been able to enjoy in Weimar. She 
used to frequent the houses of the notable people 
of the quiet University town, and there she met a 
young man with whom she fell deeply in love. He 
was of excellent family, but poor, and would never 



2i8 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

have been considered by her parents in the hght of 
a possible husband for her. The young people 
made up their minds to elope, but in order that 
no one should suspect their intention the Princess 
started a flirtation with one of her lover's friends, 
the son of the wealthy banker, Baron von Bleich- 
roder of Berlin, who consented with alacrity to play 
the part of screen in this intrigue; for he was flat- 
tered by the request to appear before the world as 
a suitor for the hand of a Princess of Weimar. 

For some time this comedy continued, Sophy al- 
ways hoping against hope that her parents would 
relent and allow her to be happy by becoming the 
wife of the only man she had ever loved. But the 
Prince and Princess William would not be per- 
suaded. They had other plans for their daughter; 

so they intimated at last to Count T that he 

was no longer welcome in their home and they put 
him on his honour not to meet Sophy elsewhere. 

The young man had no alternative but to com- 
ply. Before leaving Heidelberg, however, he ar- 
ranged to correspond with the Princess through 
the intermediary of Baron von Bleichroder, who 
undertook to deliver his letters to her and to for- 
ward to him her replies. This continued for some 



Grand Ducal Family of Weimar 219 

time, until at last the Count, wearied by all the 
obstacles which were being put in his way, and find- 
ing an heiress willing to marry him, led her to the 
altar and forgot Sophy of Weimar. 

The unfortunate girl, who never suspected that 
her lover's sentiments towards her had undergone a 
change, was staggered by the blow when she read 
by chance in a newspaper the details of the wedding 
of the man who had sworn to love her forever. She 
said nothing, but that night when alone in her 
room, she shot herself with a revolver. She left 
only one letter, addressed to her mother, in which 
she told her why she had been driven to this act of 
despair. The poor child, who in her inexperience 
of the world had believed the first man who had 
awakened her heart by his soft words, could not 
survive the disillusion, and preferred to leave a 
world that had shown itself always cruel and hard 
during her short existence. 

The suicide of Sophy of Weimar was widely 
commented upon all over Germany. It was gen- 
erally attributed to the opposition she had en- 
countered from her family in her love for Baron 
von Bleichroder. The latter never denied the af- 
fair, but, on the contrary, accepted with evident 



220 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

satisfaction the prestige he derived from his posi- 
tion as the man for whose sake a Royal Princess 
had shot herself. This awful catastrophe by which 
a young and promising life perished so miserably 
was for the Hebrew banker's son, merely a tri- 
umph of vanity, and he was glad to allow the world 
to think she had died for him. 



THE STORY OF TWO LITTLE MECK- 
LENBURG PRINCESSES 

They were two little sisters, daughters of the 
reigning Grand Duke of Mecklenburg- Strelitz 
and of his lovely wife, the Princess Elizabeth of 
Anhalt. In their babyhood everybody admired 
and petted them when they walked with their 
nurse in the park of Neu Strelitz, and as they grew 
up the good inhabitants of this mediaeval corner of 
the world took great pride in these two golden- 
haired Princesses. They were favourites not only 
of their father and mother but also of their vener- 
able grandmother, the British Princess who had 
married into this quiet German House, and who 
had tried to introduce some of the customs and 
habits of her beloved England into the little coun- 
try whose Sovereign she had become. When one 
met the young Princesses, dimpled and smiling, 
and heard their happy laughter, one never imagined 
that instead of the bright future that seemed to 



222 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

open out before them they were to taste of the bit- 
terness of life and become victims of the saddest 
fate that can befall a woman. 

The Grand Duchess Elizabeth of Strelitz had 
never enjoyed good health. She suffered some- 
times from melancholy and she used to retire to 
the solitude of one of her castles where she liked 
to spend weeks and even months at a time, refusing 
to see anyone and absorbed in deep thoughts which 
she never confided to anybody, not even to her 
nearest and dearest. Doctors said that this condi- 
tion of nerves was the result of a great shock and 
sorrow occasioned by the death of her eldest son 
from an accident which occurred in her presence. 
Whether this verdict was correct or not it is diffi- 
cult to say, but the fact remains that the Duchess, 
as her daughters grew up, began to neglect them 
and left them most of the time to the care of a gov- 
erness who, as events proved later on, was not 
worthy of the trust reposed in her. 

Mary and Jutta of INIecklenburg grew up under 
the care of this woman who travelled with them, 
superintended their studies and occupations and 
combined the functions of teacher and lady-in-wait- 
ing. When they had reached the ages of seventeen 



Two Little Mecklenburg Princesses 223 

and eighteen, respectively, the two girls were sent 
to Switzerland for a short vacation with this at- 
tendant, two maids and a footman. They were to 
spend a few weeks in Ragatz and then proceed to 
the Italian Lakes, where their father was to join 
them. 

What happened during this journey it is diffi- 
cult to explain, and, indeed, no one knows exactly. 
The one indubitable fact is that the footman, whose 
duties consisted in carrying the bags and wraps of 
the young Princesses, started a campaign of black- 
mailing against them and their parents which as- 
sumed the most formidable proportions and com- 
pletely wrecked their fair fame. 

The Grand Duke wanted to have the man tried 
and sentenced to the punishment which he de- 
served, but he fled to Berlin, where the Kaiser ab- 
solutely refused to consent to his extradition. 

William II was at that time on very bad terms 
with the whole Strelitz family, whom he accused 
of being far too English in their sympathies, and 
he probably rather enjoyed the idea of their 
humiliation; so when_ a book was published in 
Breslau which purported to relate the true story 
of the Strelitz Princesses, he not only failed to 



224 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

have it suppressed, but bought it himself and pre- 
sented copies to several of his friends. 

The miserable girls, who had thus become the 
victims of a scoundrel's vile machinations, found 
themselves social outcasts from all the Royal and 
Princely houses of Germany. No one would speak 
to them; much less would any of the marriageable 
young men of their own rank entertain the idea of 
marrying them. They had done nothing wrong; 
they had only suffered unjustly and in silence; yet 
their persecutor had escaped scot free whilst their 
lives had been wrecked, owing to the lack of vigil- 
ance and the stupidity of the woman to whose care 
they had been entrusted, who had not known how 
to shield them from a peril it should have been easy 
to avoid. 

Their father refused to comply with the extor- 
tionate demands of his whilom servant and pur- 
chase his silence ; therefore for two years this tragic 
state of things continued — the girls being shunned 
by all those who had heard the scandal. By taking 
their children to Berlin during the social winter 
season their parents hoped to save the situation, 
but they had not been twenty-four hours in the 
German capital when a message from the Kaiser 



Two Little Mecklenburg Princesses 225 

obliged them to return home. The substance of 
his communication was that though the Grand 
Duke and Grand Duchess of Strelitz would al- 
ways be welcome at the Prussian Court, their 
daughters could not be invited to any of its festivi- 
ties. It goes without sajnng that after this insult 
the unhappy parents shook the dust of Berlin from 
their feet and determined never to return there 
again. 

In the meantime the question remained unan- 
swered: what to do with these two pretty little 
Princesses, since for them marriage seemed to be 
entirely out of the question. ^lany bitter tears 
were shed in the Palace of Neu Strehtz as this 
painful situation was discussed, but no solution of 
the difficulty could be found until there came to the 
rescue two very kind persons who, each in her own 
way, put an end to a situation that had become 
well-nigh intolerable. 

One of these was Queen Victoria of England, 
whose clear common sense at once gauged the posi- 
tion and whose warm heart was touched with pity 
for the misfortunes of these far-removed nieces of 
hers. The Queen had friends everywhere, and it 
was a relatively easy thing for her to look out for 



226 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

and at last discover a man willing to marry (for 
the sake of a large dowry) the Princess Mary, the 
elder of the two Mecklenburg sisters. This man 
was a Frenchman, Monsieur de Jametel, of an 
honest bourgeois family, to whom it seemed an 
honour without precedent to become the husband of 
a real Royal Princess. This honour was amplified 
when, through the efforts of an unknown friend, 
the Pope conferred (no one ever knew for what 
reason) the title of a Roman Count upon Jules de 
Jametel. 

This marriage was very quickly decided upon, 
and the Princess was told that she had to accept 
this husband who had dropped, so to speak, from 
the skies, for the purpose of rehabilitating her after 
sins which she had never committed. Queen Vic- 
toria, motherly as she was to all who were in 
trouble, proposed that the wedding should be cele- 
brated in England, in the little village of Rich- 
mond, near which the Duchess of Teck, sister of 
the Dowager Grand Duchess of Strelitz, had her 
residence. The offer was eagerly accepted and 
after a few difficulties connected with the difference 
of rehgion of the pair, the ceremony took place 
there, and was performed by the Dean of the 



Two Little Mecklenburg Princesses 227 

Chapel Royal, Rev. Edgar Sheppard, at the spe- 
cial request of the Queen. 

Count and Countess de Jametel settled in Paris, 
but their union, which had been so entirely a mat- 
ter of convenience, did not turn out well, and a 
divorce put an end to it a few years later, the 
Countess returning to the protection of her parents 
in Germany. There much later she met and mar- 
ried a Prince Lipps, who had fallen deeply in love 
with her and who did not consider the sad story 
of her youth an impediment to their union. 

As for the second little Mecklenburg Princess, 
Jutta, she also found a good Samaritan, willing to 
come to her help, in the person of one of her aunts, 
the Princess Helene of Altenburg, daughter of the 
Grand Duchess Catherine of Russia, who was 
settled in St. Petersburg where she had inherited 
a beautiful home from her mother, as well as an 
immense fortune. 

The Princess Helene was the best and kindest 
woman in the world, and she invited her niece to 
come and pay her a long visit in Russia during the 
winter season, when she took her about everywhere, 
gave balls in her honour, and finally succeeded in 
arranging a marriage between her and the Crown 



228 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

Prince of Montenegro, who had fallen in love with 
her pretty face. 

This was a wonderful stroke of luck, in the opin- 
ion of all the relatives of the Princess Jutta, who, 
overlooking entirely the character of the man who 
was pleading for her hand, saw in him only a fu- 
ture King. A marriage with him would, in any 
case, be a great social triumph for the daughter of 
a comparatively insignificant Sovereign like the 
Grand Duke of Strelitz, and certainly no one could 
have foreseen, after all what had taken place, that 
little Jutta would ever have a chance to become one 
day a Queen, even of so miniscule a kingdom as 
that of the Black Mountain. 

But this marriage also proved a failure. 

Danile of Montenegro was anything but a kind 
or pleasant husband. He combined the despotism 
of an Oriental with the hypocrisy of a German 
(which he partly was, having been brought up in a 
Prussian town). He soon neglected his wife and 
sometimes even ill-treated her, and though they did 
not officially separate, they always seized every op- 
portunity to live apart. In spite of this, the Crown 
Princess of Montenegro contrived to make herself 
popular with the half-savage mountaineers 



Two Little Mecklenburg Princesses 229 

amongst whom she was thrown. She was serious, 
cold and dignified, but she always had a kind word 
for them. She was the only member of the 
Niegesch family whose departure from Cetinje 
was bitterly regretted by the inhabitants. 

At present Jutta is in exile in France with her 
husband's parents. She has kept her calm serenity 
in spite of the trials that have befallen her during 
the last four years or more, and, with a firm faith 
in the way in which things generally contrive to 
right themselves, she is content to wait for what 
the future has in store for her, fortified by the 
knowledge that it can never be as painful for her 
as the past. 



VI 

THE KAISER'S ROMANCE 

A VERY interesting document might be written 
concerning the Kaiser and his ideas about women. 
Those who knew him in his youth are aware that 
there was a time when feminine charms were sup- 
posed to be appreciated by him to an uncommon 
degree. During the first years of his married life 
his name was associated with that of several ladies 
in Berlin society, by whom he was suspected of be- 
ing much attracted. Then, whilst he was a student 
at Bonn University, it was common talk that he 
liked the society of girls belonging to a fast set. 
No one minded this in the least because the Hohen- 
zollerns, it was well known, had always been in- 
clined to serious as well as non-serious flirtations. 
It is probable that the Princess Augusta Victoria 
of Schleswig-Holstein when she became his wife, 
was prepared for more than one flaw in their mar- 
riage contract; but she was an exceedingly tactful 
230 



The Kaiser's Romance 231 

person, so she made up her mind never to see what 
was not intended for her eyes, and this enabled her 
to go through hfe smihng serenely on whatever it 
pleased her husband to do and to preserve her 
equanimity with those supposed rivals of hers with 
whom Prince William (as he still was at the time) 
liked to spend an hour or two in the afternoon, 
chatting upon subjects with which she was not con- 
versant or did not understand. 

This placidity, a strong contrast to the exuber- 
ant vitality of the future Wilhelm II, enabled her 
to get on with him wonderfully well. People who 
judged superficially accused her of being stupid 
and in so doing made a great mistake. Augusta 
was not at all stupid. She looked upon existence 
as an extremely serious undertaking, which must 
be arranged in the most comfortable manner pos- 
sible for those who had to go through with it. So 
she did not mind in the least when the old gossips 
of Berlin whispered in her ear that her husband 
was very much inclined to admire the Princess of 
So-and-So and the Countess of So-and-So. She 
felt that her own position was so entirely safe that 
she need not trouble about the feelings of these 
ladies whom she secretly pitied instead of envying. 



232 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

She had taken a thoroughly good survey of Prince 
Wilham's character and she understood admirably 
well that for him flirtation, even if it overstepped 
the bounds of ordinary prudence, would never be 
allowed to interfere with his ambition or his desire 
to become the ruler of the whole of the earth, as 
soon as circumstances would allow him to assume 
that part. Therefore, when the Polish Princess R., 
a fair, fat and comfortable sort of woman who 
could boast of more millions than good looks, con- 
fided under the seal of secrecy to her best friend 
that Prince William . . . you know . . . you 
know . . . and what would my husband say . . . and 
so on, with the secret hope that if once the notion 
that the future Kaiser was in love with her should 
become public property, she might acquire that 
notoriety after which her silly little soul thirsted, 
and when the harmless and deliciously naive little 
English Princess P. giggled and blushed and be- 
came embarrassed whenever anyone mentioned the 
Emperor in her presence, the Empress simply 
shrugged her shoulders and passed on, condescend- 
ing even to shake hands and talk for five minutes 
or so with the supposed object of her husband's 
love, who, by-the-way, was the only person who 



The Kaiser's Romance 233 

seriously believed that he was ready to commit any 
folly for her sake. 

The truth of the matter was that the Emperor, 
in questions where women were concerned, had just 
as settled ideas and opinions as in everything else, 
and he had made up his mind, from the hour of his 
accession to the German throne, that he would 
never allow feminine influence to control his move- 
ments or to play any part in his life. He was de- 
termined to break the family tradition of the 
Hohenzollerns which would have it that they were 
always willing to forget everything for the sake 
of a woman's smile. Even the old Emperor, Wil- 
liam I, had remained faithful to them in his youth, 
and had, down to the day of his death, enjoyed 
nothing so much as looking into a pair of pretty 
eyes. His son Frederick, the husband of the Eng- 
lish Princess Royal, was the first Prussian sov- 
ereign who remained true to his marriage vows ; but 
his reason for doing so was his deep affection for 
his remarkable and wonderful wife. His son, the 
present recluse of Amerongen, followed his ex- 
ample after he came to the throne, but from quite 
different motives, one of which was his inordinate 
ambition. He was clever enough to realise that a 



234 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

man determined to do the terrible things he had 
in mind must put himself beyond the pale of 
temptation, and he did not feel sufficiently sure 
that if he ever allowed feminine influence to play 
a part in his life it might not lead him to talk too 
much, a fault characteristic of him, which had 
landed him in trouble more than once. With all 
his faults, the greatest criminal the world has ever 
seen knew how to hold his tongue in matters which 
he considered of supreme importance for the 
realisation of the wonderful schemes at which he 
had continually worked ever since he had attained 
the age of manhood. But . . . there happen in every 
man's life accidents over which he has no control, 
and, Kaiser though he was, William the Small had 
to submit to this almost inevitable human law. 
There came a day when he could not keep his feel- 
ings under restraint, and when he also felt that he 
would willingly sacrifice throne, crown, fleet and 
army — in fact, all that he held dear — for the sake 
of a pair of dark eyes. 

Those eyes belonged to a lady called t^e 
Countess Goertz, the wife of one of the greatest, 
most powerful and wealthy German nobles, whose 
family had enjoyed regal privileges in the days of 



The Kaiser's Romance 235 

the Holy Roman Empire, and whose sons and 
daughters were considered worthy to unite with 
royalty. The Countess herself was a Brazilian by 
birth, the daughter of Count de Villeneuve, who 
had for many years represented his country as 
diplomatic agent in Paris and Brussels, and of 
that lovely Countess de Villeneuve who was con- 
sidered the most beautiful woman in Europe for 
some five and twenty years. Sophie Goertz had 
inherited her mother's beautiful features and her 
father's intelligence, and she was certainly one of 
the most fascinating creatures a man could wish 
for his wife, or . . . She had not escaped calumny, 
of course; what really pretty woman ever does? 
But no open scandal had ever been connected with 
her name; perhaps because she had led a very 
quiet and retired life, spending most of her time 
in her castle of Schlitz, which was one of the most 
magnificent residences in Germany. It was ac- 
cident that brought her to Berlin, where her hus- 
band had some business matters that claimed his 
presence; and once in Berlin, it was quite natural 
for her to ask to be presented to the Emperor and 
Empress. 

The moment the Kaiser saw her he knew that 



236 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

at last he had met his fate. The first thing he did 
was to give Count von Goertz one of those Court 
appointments which were considered so important 
that it would have been considered nothing short of 
crime to have refused it. Then he insisted on the 
couple coming regularly to Berlin for the winter 
months, and he visited them several times at their 
country-seat. It was noticed that he tried when- 
ever possible to get the Countess Goertz to sit next 
to him at State dinners and other festivities, and 
at last it became known that he had adopted the 
habit of dropping in upon her at tea time for an 
hour's chat, a custom totally foreign to his daily 
programme heretofore. Of course people began to 
talk, and for the first time it seemed as though they 
. had good reasons to do so. 

In the meantime, what was Sophy Goertz her- 
self thinking? If the truth be told, she was think- 
ing a great deal. She had always been an am- 
bitious woman and she would have had no objec- 
tion to playing the part of one of those maitresses 
de rot, who were such a power in the State during 
the old days when the French monarchy was con- 
sidered the first in Europe. She wanted to rule 
the Kaiser, to direct his politics, and to be consulted 



The Kaiser's Romance 237 

by him in grave matters of international impor- 
tance. And for a few months it really seemed as if 
such a thing might come to pass, and grave states- 
men, like Prince von Biilow, took to courting the 
beautiful Countess and treating her like the im- 
portant personage she was fast becoming. She 
saw very well how matters stood, and felt so elated 
at her success that she tried to persuade William 
II to make some concessions to the French and 
thereby establish pleasant relations between Ger- 
many and the country she had beaten nearly half 
a century before. Sophy had French sympathies 
which were very real and very sincere, being, 
French on her mother's side and having been 
brought up in Paris. It was, therefore, natural 
that she should attempt to use the influence she 
had acquired over the Kaiser in order to benefit 
the country and the people she loved so well. 

And, curious as this may seem, there was a 
moment when she very nearly succeeded in her de- 
signs. She might have done so indeed if the Em- 
press, aroused to jealousy for the first time, had not 
interfered in an unexpected manner. 

It took a great deal to incite Victoria Augusta 
to anger, but once this had been effected she could 



238 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

be very disagreeable indeed. The rare loveliness 
of the Countess Goertz, with whom she knew very 
well she could not compete as regards looks, had 
incited her jealousy. Happening to meet the 
Countess at some social function, she noticed with 
much satisfaction that her complexion was not 
quite as beautiful as usual; a few red pimples 
spoiled the smoothness and delicate tint of her 
cheeks. The Empress, after the manner of all 
jealous women, could not help making a remark 
that was destined to rankle in the heart of her 
hearer. 

"What has happened to you, Countess?" she 
asked. "Where have you been to get so dread- 
fully bitten by mosquitoes? May I send you an 
ointment which is excellent in such cases for re- 
moving the red spots which are so disfiguring?" 

The Countess started, but preserved her self- 
control and murmured words of thanks. When 
she reached home, however, the first thing she did 
was to run to the mirror, where, upon close exami- 
nation, she had to confess that the soft bloom which 
had been one of her greatest attractions had really 
suffered at the hands of time, and that she was no 



The Kaiser^s Romance 239 

longer, at forty-two years old, the radiant creature 
she had been at twenty. 

There are some women who refuse to acknowl- 
edge the laws of nature and to resign themselves to 
growing old. Sophy Goertz was one of them, and 
in her despair at losing the loveliness for which she 
had been so famous she had recourse to the help of 
one of those quack doctors whose advertisements 
appear in the pages of the daily newspapers, in the 
hope that he would give her a tonic that would 
keep her everlastingly young. 

Alas, alas! Quack doctors are dangerous peo- 
ple to turn to. After undergoing a course of treat- 
ment which lasted for several weeks, the Countess 
was taken home in an almost dying condition. The 
various pomades and lotions that had been applied 
to her face had occasioned blood poisoning and 
made her hopelessly ill. 

She was brought to Berlin, to a private sani- 
tarium, where the question of an operation was dis- 
cussed; but she was already so weak that the doc- 
tors did not dare to risk it, and her husband was 
told that her condition was such that the end might 
come at anj^ moment. The Kaiser went to see her, 
and people said afterwards that his last meeting 



240 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

with the only woman he had truly loved was a most 
affecting one. Moved to pity, the Kaiserin also 
visited her former rival, returning from this inter- 
view in a state of genuine distress which induced 
her to advise her husband to try to have an inter- 
view with the dying Countess. Augusta could be 
magnanimous, and the sight of the once beautiful 
Sophy reduced to a mere skeleton, robbed of all 
traces of her former loveliness, impressed her pro- 
foundly. It was easy for her then to forgive, even 
if she felt that she could never forget. 

The body of the Countess Goertz was taken 
back to Schlitz and buried there in the family lot. 
Her funeral was attended by the Kaiser, who, just 
before the earth was shovelled upon the coffin, 
stepped beside the open grave and, after gazing for 
some minutes at the bier, dropped some roses upon 
it before he turned away. It was noticed that some 
of them were faded, probably in remembrance of 
some incident in a love-story in which he had 
shown himself human for the first and only time 
in his life. 



VII 

THE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE OF MEIN- 
INGEN AND HER ADVENTURES 

She was a very pretty woman, this Princess who 
at one time was a notable figure in Berlin society. 
This was some thirty years ago, when she was first 
emancipated from the trammels of etiquette which 
she had always hated. Princess Victoria Eliza- 
beth Augusta Charlotte was the second child and 
eldest daughter of the then Crown Prince of Prus- 
sia and of his wife, the Princess Royal of Great 
Britain and Ireland. She had not had a pleasant 
life at home ; it is certain that, for some unexplain- 
able reason, she had not been able to get on with 
her mother. The Crown Princess was an auto- 
cratic person and Charlotte had not a yielding dis- 
position. It was prognosticated by those who knew 
her intimately that she would marry young, in 
order to escape the maternal supervision under 
which she fretted. 

241 



242 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

She could have made a far more brilliant match 
than the one she did. Prince Bernard of Saxe- 
Meiningen, to whom she was united when scarcely 
seventeen years old, was neither handsome nor at- 
tractive. The Duchy to which he was the heir was 
one of the smallest in Germany, and his father had 
married again, an actress whom he had created 
Baroness von Heldburg, and who ruled his Court. 
The young Prussian Princess could not be ex- 
pected to take a subordinate place under such a per- 
son. It was decided, therefore, that she and her 
husband should occupy a small villa in Potsdam, 
which, though modest in the extreme, was never- 
theless considered sufficient for her requirements. 

Charlotte was given no opportunity to say 
whether this arrangement pleased her or not. She 
had simply to do what she was told, and for the 
two years that followed upon her marriage she led 
a most retired life, which, if the truth be told, bored 
her extremely. 

She was a clever woman and perfectly well 
aware of the advantages which her lovely face 
might eventually procure for her. She was cun- 
ning, too, and very quickly realised that so long 
as she remained in Potsdam close to her parents, 




I M i;i:s,s Fkkderick { Right ) 
IIkk Dauuiukk, Princess Charlotte of Mkimxgen 



Adventures of Princess Charlotte 243 

and always more or less under her mother's con- 
trol, she would never be able to lead her own life. 
She therefore insinuated herself into the good 
graces of one of the most important personages in 
Berlin, General von Albedyll, who, being the head 
of the Emperor's military cabinet, was the only 
man upon whom depended military promotions. 
He was married to an amiable woman, Hanoverian 
by birth, and sister of the late Duchess Louise of 
Devonshire. Princess Charlotte began to cultivate 
this lady and the result was that Prince Bernard 
von Meiningen was appointed to the command of 
an infantry regiment quartered in Berlin, and had 
to bid good-bye to the delights of his former gar- 
rison of Potsdam. 

When the news became official Charlotte re- 
paired to her grandfather, the old Kaiser, and hav- 
ing wept before him and lamented her poverty, 
which prevented her from keeping up an establish- 
ment in accordance with her rank, she obtained 
from him the loan of a large suite of rooms in the 
Royal Castle of Charlottenburg, which, being so 
close to Berlin, was almost a suburb of the capital. 

In Charlottenburg the Princess held quite a 
Court. She knew very well that her mother could 



244 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

not now drop on her unawares, and she started to 
gather around her a set of people who, though con- 
sidered the fastest in Berhn, were perhaps for this 
very reason the most agreeable. She gave small 
dinners and select supper parties and, if the truth 
be told, her salon was the source of all kinds of 
gossip which was anything but charitable. 

Of course, this became known very soon, and the 
sarcastic spirit of the Princess, her love of criticism, 
her ever-ready eagerness to think and speak ill of 
her neighbour, procured for her many enemies. 
But she was her elder brother's favourite, and it 
was even rumoured that during the Emperor Fred- 
erick's last illness she had, with him, plotted against 
their mother. When William II ascended the 
throne his sister Charlotte became a social power 
and began to be dreaded as one of the most danger- 
ous elements at Court, especially dangerous be- 
cause she was never upon good terms with the 
Goddess Truth, and this circumstance sometimes 
put her, as well as others, into rather a tight corner. 

But she was a pretty woman, and might have 
been even prettier, had she not always been drug- 
ging herself with all kinds of pills and powders in 
her desire to get thin. She was amusing also, 



Adventures of Princess Charlotte 245 

though merciless at times, and she never rebuked 
the infatuated men who so far forgot etiquette as 
to tell her that they admired her. As for her hus- 
band, she treated him like the negligible quantity- 
he was, and if she did not call him in public 'le 
pauvre homme/" as Marie Antoinette called Louis 
XVI, it was not because she did not think that he 
deserved the appellation. 

Princess Charlotte was very fond of pretty 
gowns, and she was of the opinion that nowhere 
are prettier ones to be found than in Paris. She 
used to visit the French capital every spring and 
autumn, incognito, and there hold long conferences 
with her numerous dressmakers. From Paris she 
wandered sometimes to the French Riviera, and at 
last bought a villa at Cannes, a retreat for her old 
age, as she laughingly remarked to some of her 
friends. 

Among the most fashionable people in Berlin 
at that time were the two Counts Hehenau, the 
morganatic sons of Prince Albert of Prussia, the 
youngest brother of the old Kaiser. They were 
both married, and both were to become in time the 
heroes of rather sensational scandals. The younger. 
Count Fritz, was one of the favourites of the Prin- 



246 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

cess Charlotte, and used to spend mosrt of his after- 
noons with her, to the great sorrow of his pretty 
and attractive wife. The latter grew at last im- 
patient and one day complained to the Kaiserin, 
who, in her turn, remonstrated with the Princess 
Charlotte. The Princess did not reply to her sister- 
in-law's reproaches, but went home in a towering 
rage, vowing vengeance on the Countess Hehenau, 
as well as on Augusta Victoria, for her interference 
in a matter which did not concern her — at least, in 
Charlotte's estimation. A month or two passed 
and then Berlin was startled by the famous anony- 
mous letters which created one of the greatest 
scandals the Prussian capital had ever known. 

They were very curious letters, addressed tot 
most of the leaders of Berhn society, slandering, 
with more or less semblance of truth, nearly all the 
pretty women in the town. The Kaiserin herself 
received some, calling her attention to the in- 
fluence which the Countess Hehenau was acquiring 
over the mind of the Emperor and denouncing her 
as trying to sow dissension between the Sovereign 
and his consort. Letters sent to other people re- 
peated the same story, and as these missives seemed 
to arrive at all hours, to be found everywhere and 



Adventures of Princess Charlotte 247 

to be received by everybody, they created a disturb- 
ance in social circles such as had never been known 
before. All kinds of complications followed in 
their wake, even several duels, one of which ended 
fatally, until at last people became so suspicious of 
each other that social life came almost to an end in 
Berlin. 

Then, one day someone discovered that a few 
of these abominable letters had been written on a 
paper which bore the name and address of a shop 
in Cannes. This was sufficient to turn the thoughts 
of the public towards the Princess Charlotte of 
Meiningen, whose reputation for unkindness was 
by that time so thoroughly established that it cer- 
tainly was not wonderful that suspicion should at- 
tach itself to her. 

Her position became most difficult and she had 
to do something to improve it. Somehow she had 
contrived to remain upon excellent terms with her 
brother and easily obtained from him the transfer 
of her husband, Prince Bernard, to Breslau, . as 
commander of one of the army corps stationed in 
that town. 

But in Breslau the Princess also managed to get 
talked about, this time on account of an outrageous 



248 Secrets of Dethroned Royalty 

flirtation with a Silesian nobleman, and she carried 
it so far that at last the Emperor lost all patience 
and he spoke in energetic terms to his brother-in- 
law, counselling him to pay more attention to his 
wife's conduct. 

Prince Bernard, however, would not admit that 
anyone, even the Emperor, should interfere with 
his family affairs, and the result was that angry 
words were exchanged between the two men. The 
Prince resigned his command and declared to Prin- 
cess Charlotte that he would not consent to live any 
longer in Breslau if they offered to pay him his 
weight in gold to do so. Perhaps she also shared 
this opinion, because the couple retired to one of 
their country-seats in Meiningen and divided their 
time between this rural residence and Cannes in 
France, where they made for themselves a number 
of friends and where they both hoped to end their 
days should Providence ordain that they should die 
during the winter season. 

Then came the war. The villa in Cannes was 
confiscated by the French Government. Berlin 
became the seat of a republic. The little Duchy of 
Meiningen decided that it would do much better 
without its Duke and his lively wife. Princess 



Adventures of Princess Charlotte 249 

Charlotte became a wanderer on the face of the 
earth. Everything she had known and enjoyed 
disappeared in the tempest which swept away roy- 
alties with all their frailties and weaknesses. The 
whole world was transformed — let us hope for the 
better — and in the new world in which our children 
are to live may the dissolute Monarch and his 
Court, with its secrets and intrigues, be a legend of 
the past. 



THE END 



